Synthetic Aesthetic
by KtyouVsWriting
Summary: What does a synthetic and a human have in common? Most people would say nothing. One is born and has lived a life up until the present day. The other is created with a singular purpose, just like a machine is. But, Jaune Arc isn't normal, not since he chose to pick up a weapon and Penny Polendina is unlike any synthetic that has come before her. What does that mean when they meet?
1. YOU CALLED ME CUTE

**CHAPTER 1:** **YOU CALLED ME CUTE**

**Remnant**

** Kingdom of Vale, City of Vale**

** October 26th**

** 80 Years After the Great War**

Jaune Arc, despite his dream of becoming a hero and a huntsman, had come to a realization about his life that was only possible with the hindsight that he now possessed. It was so simple and so prevalent in his life before Beacon Academy that it surprised him quite a bit when it first came to his mind.

He missed his normal life.

Just recently, he had engaged in a serious battle with an Ursa Major and had somehow come out on top. In terms of what the other students could do at the academy, this was hardly anything special. It wouldn't be surprising if most of his classmates could take on two or three Grimm Alphas at a time, but in his case, he needed that fight.

The fact that he had won had given him the much-needed confidence he desired. It also made him realize that he had new responsibilities not only to himself, but also to Team JNPR. Like fellow leader Ruby Rose had said to him the day prior, he no longer had the luxury to doubt himself. People were counting on him to take charge in battle.

Jaune came upon these realizations almost immediately following this event, but the revelation about how much he missed his old life had only come after his new reality sunk in, being that his life had changed in so many ways. Swinging Crocea Mors with the intent to kill Grimm was something that made him feel something deep inside. He couldn't say what it was precisely, but it was unlike anything he had felt when simply imagining himself doing it. The reality of it and the visceral nature left him processing the memories. He had nothing to compare what he was doing now to what he had done in his earlier years.

None of his civilian skills were at all comparable. He could survive in the wilderness thanks to numerous camping trips with his family, cook decent meals out of necessity for a household with ten mouths to feed, and even bust a move on the dance floor in no small part due to his sisters.

But how could any of that compare to live combat where life and death were two sides of the same coin and his fate was decided by a flip of the coin?

Was this sort of confusion natural for an aspiring huntsman like him or was this just something only he thought about?

Jaune certainly didn't get the feeling that anyone else thought about this stuff. To everyone else, killing Grimm was second nature. Maybe all of them had more experience and therefore were better-equipped to deal with any mental confusion than he was. Perhaps most of them had sorted out any initial puzzlement long ago and had adopted new ways of framing all of it. He wouldn't know about any of that. He hadn't bothered to ask anyone in the freshman year, not even Team RWBY or even his own teammates for that matter.

Within the world that was his mind, the knight lost sight of his path for all of a second. His eyes failed to look up to sight any potential hazards in his way and even if did at that moment, it was too late.

He felt the collision a few seconds before he could see what was going on. Compared to how the Grimm hit him, his body didn't register much of an impact, but he would recognize the feeling of bumping into someone anywhere. Had this happened months ago, he would have likely fallen over because his body was not nearly as developed. Now, he took only half of a second to regain steady footing.

That's when he set his eyes upon the person that he had come into contact with. He had been the fortunate one. He was still standing up, but he saw that whoever he walked into had fallen down. His eyes came to focus.

It was a girl, but to call her average would be incorrect not to mention downright insulting.

The first thing that caught Jaune's attention was her hair, which was the most bright orange that he had ever seen with a few strands standing up quite prominently. Fair skin leaning towards a more pale complexion was occasionally dotted with freckles. Her eyes were a very bright green, almost unnaturally so.

Her face wasn't all that made her stand out.

She wore clothes that were a stark contrast to the more complex and stylistic look of the people in the City of Vale, which were light grey overalls combined with a blouse. The attire was modest in nature, revealing very little skin. Even the short skirt she sported was accompanied by long black stockings. To top it all off, a single pink bow could be found located at the back of her head.

Jaune's mind quickly worked through her entire look. Growing up with seven sisters who were always looking for his advice on fashion forced him to take in information regarding the subject, despite his lack of interest in regards to himself. Taking everything into account, one word popped into his mind.

_Cute._ Jaune felt the word was most apt.

"Salutations!" The girl said from her prone position on the ground.

"Um, hi." Jaune grinned somewhat awkwardly. "Are… you okay?"

"I'm splendid!" She replied with a lot of enthusiasm. "Thank you for asking!"

Of all the ways that she could have responded, this was not the way he was expected. He assumed she would get angry or at the very least annoyed. It only seemed the most normal and appropriate action to take given the situation. Her candid and friendly words as well as her energetic attitude were welcome nonetheless; this was a far more preferable response than what he had envisioned.

"So, I'm Jaune Arc." He scratched the back of his head. "It's short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, and the ladies love it."

It then occurred to Jaune just how much he wished he had simply said his name and left it at that.

How many times had he used that line to no effect?

No, he had better not answer his own question. His pride was on the line here.

"That's wonderful!" She nodded her head in understanding. "Thank you for sharing that with me!"

Did she seriously just accept his words at face value?

And if she did, should he be worried or excited that a girl finally spoke some words of encouragement?

"What's your name, by the way?" Jaune felt it was time to move on.

"My name is Penny Polendina!" She introduced herself. "It's so nice to meet you!"

"Uh, thanks." Jaune felt himself stumble a bit, but then he remembered what had just happened. "Here, let me help you up."

As he had done for Ruby when he first met her, he held out a hand to Penny. She gazed at his palm for a moment before taking it. As he brought her up to a standing position, he noted that her grip was strong, much more so than her build would suggest.

"Thank you very much!" Penny's chipped attitude was maintained. "I apologize deeply for running into you!"

"You don't need to do that." Jaune raised his hands. "If anything, it's my carelessness that got us here."

"I'm also guilty of the same crime!" Penny claimed, moving closer to him. "Therefore, I share at least some of the guilt!"

He would have argued further, but then a memory came back to him. Or rather, multiple memories came back to him. All of them were of him in a pointless looping argument about who was right or wrong, who was to blame and who wasn't, who did what and when, and everything else in between. He and his sisters could go on like this forever.

That wasn't a good idea now.

"Then how about this?" Jaune tried another tactic. "Let's say we're both at fault and call it even? Is that cool?"

"Yes!" Penny confirmed with a vigorous nod of her head. "I wholeheartedly agree!"

For some reason, the more he spoke with her, the more at-ease he felt. This girl was a much different breed from the ones that he was used to interacting with. Something about her seemed fundamentally easy to understand. His previous nervousness felt like a thing of the past.

But another feeling was beginning to grow within him: awkwardness. He wasn't used to a first-time conversation with a girl going this well. Plus, he didn't have any plans to go out and try to chat with girls. He was just here to let his mind wander for a bit, nothing more. This whole incident was uncharted territory.

Besides, right now, Weiss was who he was interested in.

"Yeah, so it was nice meeting you." Jaune flashed a small smile. "But try not to fall again. It'd be a shame to see such a cute girl like you get hurt. Later."

_Well, that was something, I guess._ The knight thought to himself. _I probably shouldn't think into it too much._

After all, he probably wouldn't see her again.

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

Penny Polendina was a truly unique lifeform unlike anything the world had ever seen. That was not overconfidence or arrogance speaking, merely a statement of fact. She was the first synthetic individual with the ability to use aura as any human or faunus was capable of. Truly, she was a revolutionary marvel of technology and aura research.

But aside from a select few individuals, nobody would be able to tell the difference between herself and a regular human. It was absolutely vital that her very nature remain secret; in essence, she was a piece of classified Atlas Military technology, perhaps one of its most heavily-guarded secrets to date.

And she was wandering the streets aimlessly.

Penny was well aware of the dangers involved in entering civilian society as she was, but her curiosity for exploration was far greater than her desire to remain on standby and await the arrival of General Ironwood. There were so many possibilities abound in the world that it seemed impossible to remain in one place. If they wished her to be more obedient, then it would have been better for her father and the general to have given her a personality that matched that of a loyal soldier, not a normal girl.

Of course she would not reveal anything about herself that would indicate she was anything but a normal human girl. There were dangers involved in revealing what she really was. One need only look at the current state of human-faunus affairs to see the truth of the matter. The most probable reaction should someone find out was likely revulsion followed by denial of contact.

But she wanted to have friends. She wanted to chat with girls about boys. She wanted to go shopping. She wanted to do stuff with other normal girls. Maybe then she might just get an idea of how to be a better human.

What she had just experienced, however, was something else entirely. Instead of meeting girls, she had just met a boy. It wasn't a planned event, but it happened regardless and the incident was replaying in her memory databanks.

Jaune Arc. He was exactly 73 inches, or 185.5 centimeter tall. He had blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a build of a moderate athlete, greater than the average person, but not at the level of a huntsman. He proclaimed himself to be able to attract the opposite sex easily. He had an easy-going attitude. He was polite.

But that wasn't what mattered to her. No, it was the last thing he said to her that stuck with her the most. He had said it so casually to her that it took her a moment to realize it and that was amazing considering how fast she could process information.

_He called me cute._ Penny said to herself. _He called me cute!_

Now she wasn't sure if that was the case, yet she was absolutely positive that her audio receptors were not malfunctioning.

But she had to be sure.

So she ran as fast her legs would carry her until she placed herself directly in front of his path. To his credit, this time, he was able to stop before hitting her with only a small bit of space between them.

"What did you call me?" Penny leaned forward on her tippy toes to try to compensate for the considerable height difference between them.

"Huh?" Jaune looked confused. "I, uh-"

"You called me cute?" Penny met his eyes with much intensity. "Am I really cute?"

"Eh, y-yeah, of course." Jaune fumbled a bit, his eyes cast to the ground. "I mean, I wouldn't lie about something like that."

So the synthetic girl felt her emotions growing stronger. A grin sooned dawned on her features as she threw her arms around him. For some odd reason, this feeling felt really good. She barely knew this boy yet he had given her a compliment that she thought she might never hear from anyone.

"Thank you so much!" Penny squeezed him. "Nobody's ever said that I'm cute!"

"Can't… breathed…" Jaune's voice was raspy. "Please… let go!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Penny heard him and released him. "I forget my strength sometimes!"

"So I see." Jaune gasped a few breaths, taking a few seconds to regain his balance.

"You don't seem all that surprised about how strong I am." Penny tilted her head to her left side. "Why is that?"

"Well, I have some friends at Beacon who hug just as tight as you do." Jaune appeared to realize something, then looked at her. "Are you a student at Beacon Academy by any chance?"

"Oh, no!" Penny shook her head, seeking to correct him. "I hail from Atlas and I am combat ready!"

"So, you're from Atlas Academy?" Jaune scratched his head. "That is the name of the huntsman academy in Atlas, right?"

"Yes it is!" Penny affirmed his question. "And since you mentioned Beacon Academy, am I correct in saying that you're training to become a huntsman?"

"Yeah, although I've got a long way to go before I'm at the level of my peers." Jaune sighed, his face sullen. "A very long way."

"You look upset." Penny moved forward even more, then her face twisted into panic. "If I've offended you, I apologize!"

"It's not your fault." Jaune attempted to wave off her concern. "It's just that I've got so much to do and I feel like I'm not getting there fast enough."

"Are you saying that your training is not adequate?" Penny tried to ascertain the meaning behind his words.

"No, not the training itself, just me." Jaune pointed to himself. "I came into Beacon lacking the right kind of preparations. Training, experience, equipment, you name it."

"But why?" Penny was now even more confused. "Why go to a huntsman academy if you were not prepared?"

"Because… I've always wanted to do something important, make a difference, you know?" Jaune's eyes fell to look at the ground. "But I didn't go through the proper motions beforehand and now I'm paying the price for it, but I can't just back out. I've come too far to bow out now."

As the ginger-haired girl regarded the blonde, she couldn't help but look at him and feel something in herself. Here was a perfect stranger, barely an acquaintance, sharing with her something that appeared to be an uncofiortable subject. He wasn't obligated by any means to reveal such information nor would she be so rude as to press him for it. Still, disregarding the conversations' bearings and his current emotional state, he had revealed all of this of his own volition.

He had doubts and concerns and worry about himself.

Just like she did.

Penny felt that her next move might be out of place not to mention inappropriate, but against her logic and rationality, she reached out with her right hand and gently patted Jaune's head, petting his hair as if he were a domesticated animal. The first thing that she noted was how lush and soft the feeling was. She had played with her own hair before so she was familiar with the feeling, but touching someone else's hair was an entirely different experience. Where hers was sleek and smooth, his was ruffled and messy, but between the two of them, softness wasn't any different.

"I think you're doing a wonderful think wanting to join this noble cause!" She expressed her honest opinion. "Being a huntsman is a difficult career and the fact that you're so committed despite your inner doubt proves that you are strong!"

She watched Jaune closely as his eyes lifted up. From staring at those deep blue irises, she felt as if she could interpret a various number of emotions. He said no words at first, his body doing more of the talking. The fact that he had not backed away or displayed an outright negative reaction seemed as good an outcome as she could hope for.

"I appreciate the thought." Exactly seven seconds later, he found something to say back. "Really, I do."

For some reason, his tone of voice didn't feel like they had connected with the intent of what he had spoken. It left her strangely unsatisfied.

Jaune cleared his throat loudly. "So… not that I'm complaining, but we're really close."

Penny blinked, then determined the distance between them, which was almost nothing at this point. "Oh! You're right! I'll step back now!"

She stepped back, a blush dawning on her features. This was most definitely not the proper way to start off a relationship with a boy. Such intimate contact should be reserved for those who were very close, yet the gesture she had performed felt only natural to her. If anything, being the one to comfort someone was a much better thing to be doing than her worrying about whether or not she looked and acted human.

"You know, you remind me of one of my friends." Jaune sounded less downtrodden and more upbeat. "Both of you are so upbeat and friendly."

"T-thank you very much for the compliment!" Penny put her hands behind her back in bashfulness. "I sincerely appreciate it."

For a moment, there were no words carried between them, just a mutual feeling of happy feelings between them. That's when his head turned to look off somewhere else, but only for three seconds, then he looked back to her.

"Do you… want something to drink?"

"...yes!"

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

Jaune honestly felt proud of himself for being able to do this. It wasn't everyday that he managed to get a girl's attention let alone ask her out on a date of any sort. The advice his entire family had given him in relationship to women was officially garbage. That was a massive problem considering that most of his family was female.

But then again, he hardly used any of their advice in this case. This girl was a far cry from the girl that he was currently crushing on. For one thing, Weiss carried herself with far more dignity and grace than most girls her age. The snow angel was hardly comparable to Penny, who came off as more enthusiastic and innocent. In that respect, the latter was closer to Ruby if he had to make a comparison.

Jaune shook his head. Why was he focusing on girls that weren't here when he had one that he was supposed to be talking to right now? That was just plain rude.

He was having a coffee with this nice girl who happened to be cute and nice and kind of funny in a way he couldn't vocalize. He ought to be focused on what was right in front of him at this time.

For a moment, he entertained the idea of bragging about this date-like event to his friends back at Beacon, but he was pretty sure there was only one way that was going to end: them not believing him and expressing that disbelief in their own ways, which would annoy him and demoralize him.

Which sounded about right. All he had to do was think about all the times he flirted with Weiss.

Again, he blamed his entire family.

It might be a better idea to just treat this girl as a friend and nothing more.

The blonde boy watched as the orange-haired girl carefully blew on her hot drink before taking a small sip. It was kind of cute the way she delicately handled the cup. It was like she was afraid she was going to spill her drink. That was the sort of thing that he expected a child to do, not a teenage girl.

"Can I ask you a question, Penny?" Jaune now had something to talk about.

"Of course, Jaune!" Penny lowered her cup enough so that her face was completely visible to him. "I'll do my best to answer!"

"I've never met someone so… out of touch with the world." Jaune did his best to word his thoughts. "This is just a feeling but… it looks to me like you don't get out that often."

It might have been his imagination, but he could have sworn that the ginger-haired girl looked torn about something.

"My father is… very protective of me." Penny said sheepishly. "He would prefer that I don't go too far from Atlas, but…"

"Huh." Jaune felt a very familiar feeling of deja vu. "I can't say that I understand that feeling at all."

His parents, while not necessarily supportive of his dream of becoming a huntsman, simply let him do as he pleased. The blonde knew why that was the case. His mom and dad figured that should he fail, he'd come right back home and things would go back to normal more or less. That just made him want to succeed all the more.

Now that he thought about it that way, maybe his parents didn't want him to become a huntsman. Maybe they were low-key telling him to come home so that they didn't have to worry about him being dead.

"Actually, I take that back. I kind of understand." Jaune folded his hands in front of him on the table surface while looking into his coffee cup. "My parents, they probably don't ever say it out loud, but I guess they want me to come back home, be safe with them, all of that, kind of like how your father worries about you, even though you're combat ready, as you said."

He couldn't say for sure whether or not she could fight, but nothing she had said had led him to believe that she was lying to him.

"I don't comprehend the logic." Penny's face, for the first time, adopted a frown. "My father knows as well as I do that I can fight, and yet he still wants to protect me as if I have no combat prowess. Why?"

"Because it's in a parent's nature to worry." Jaune didn't pretend to understand how his parents felt fully, only seeing the worry. "After all, children are a part of their parents. They don't want to lose a part of themselves, you know?"

This seemed to be a point of contention between the girl and her father and now that they were discussing this, what about her mother? Where was she in all of this?

"I only have a father." Penny could either read his thoughts or she was correcting him on his assumption of her family. "I don't have a mother."

"Oh." Jaune had only come across situations like these every so often and that made it awkward for him. "Sorry. I didn't know."

"Oh, no! It's nothing as drastic as you're imagining!" Penny waved her hands as if to assuage his guilt about broaching the subject. "There is no tragedy to talk about. I just don't have a mother. I've never had one in all my life."

"Never had one?" Jaune felt that her wording was strange and his curiosity got the better of him. "As in, you've never known her? Or just… you don't have any memory of her?"

Penny listened to him, then suddenly appeared very flustered. "O-oh, u-um, I-I, y-es! I… never knew her! I don't have any memories of her!"

As soon as those words left her mouth, she abruptly let out a hiccup. He noticed it, but aside from it momentarily distracting him, he simply passed it off. What he was more focused on was her unforeseen change in tone.

"Are you okay, Penny?" Jaune wasn't clear about what to make of this.

"Yes, everything's fine, Jaune! There's nothing to worry about!" Penny said, then she hiccuped again.

The first time was a coincidence, but the second time was just a little bit suspicious and now that he was looking at her more closely, he could see her face looking somewhat anxious and tense. Her eyes seemed to be looking all over the place, as if she was trying to look for a way out of this path of conversation.

"You should probably finish your drink." Jaune's eyes fell to her cup. "It's not as good when it's cold."

"Yes, I agree!" Penny agreed instantly with his suggestion and tried to drink while hiding her face. "This is really good!"

She was definitely trying to switch the topic, that much he could see, but he wasn't one to pry into the personal matters of others, especially when it came to delicate family matters. He had a whole family, so he always felt bad for those that didn't have that, but they had circumstances that he didn't understand on a personal level, so who was he to comment on something that he had no experience with?

But now he had another problem. Now that they had effectively ended this trail, he wasn't sure how he ought to segment into the next topic. He could only look to his left, wracking his brain for inspiration.

"What's Atlas like?" Jaune realized that he didn't know much about her home, so there was that. "I've never been there before."

"Atlas?" Penny returned her eyes to him, appearing perplexed by his question, but then lit up quickly. "Oh, it's a wonderful place filled with all of the latest technological innovations that the world has to offer. Most people can't help but admire the view from the sky."

"I can only imagine." Jaune knew as much about the northernmost kingdom as any average person who had never been there. "What's the coolest sight there?"

The boy listened to the girl as she began to describe the place that she came from. It was clear that she thought much of her home. That was a good thing; she clearly associated many good memories with Atlas. That had to be a good sign.

But that didn't explain why she wanted to get out so much. If she loved where she came from so much, what reason would she have to wander so far from home? The best guess he could make was that there was some greater purpose guiding her. Maybe she had a goal of some kind that she needed or wanted to fulfill. He would like to think that was how she felt because he knew the feeling of loving his home, but wanting to leave it.

_We could be more alike than I thought._ Jaune kept that thought to himself. _Here's hoping, right?_

The leader of Team JNPR opted to stop overthinking and simply listen to what she had to say. He could worry about the details later.

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

Penny moved along the sidewalk, humming merrily to herself. Today had been a very nice day. She had met someone new, he called her cute, they spent time together, and best of all, he didn't know about her secret.

But he had come awfully close to hearing about it. She had nearly spilled the nature of what she was to him and if there was one thing that she didn't want him to know, it was that she wasn't normal.

The girl with carrot-colored hair didn't want to lose a potential best friend on account of him knowing that she was a synthetic life form. She didn't have many people that she could call friends. Her father didn't really count. General Ironwood was more of a boss than a friend. Winter Schnee was highly professional, so there wasn't much going on their either. Compared to the rest of them, Jaune just treated her like a normal person, a normal girl.

She liked that feeling and she wanted to experience that feeling again if it was at all possible.

Penny ceased her footsteps and her processes came to a realization: she had no means of communicating with him. She had not asked him for his scroll number nor had he requested hers. They had parted ways without any way to get in touch with each other.

"No, no no!" Penny felt her good memories of today turning sorrowful. "Why did you forget to ask him?!"

At this point, trying to find him would be hard. Well, not really. She knew enough information about him to guess where he was going at this time. He was likely on his way back to Beacon Academy to return to his teammates. Unlike herself, he was a student and as such, he had his own set of tasks to attend to, no doubt.

_Wait._ Penny thought of something. _I know how I can find his contact information._

Her father had given her a plethora of tools and software in order to make her interaction with technology easier. Although her primary purpose was to be a weapon to fight all threats posed against Atlas, she was more than capable of performing many other jobs such as cyberwarfare, subterfuge, stealth operations, reconnaissance, Grimm extermination, protection, whatever need that the military required, she could do it.

So why not just hack into the CCTS and retrieve Jaune's information?

There was one issue when obtaining information like this; it was possible that when she returned for maintenance, her data logs would show that she had performed a hacking into the CCTS in order to obtain information on a student of Beacon Academy. That could lead to a lot of questions that might not bode well for either her or Jaune.

So how could she do this without having to go through a lengthy explanation as to why she did this?

That's when Penny come to a conclusion that seemed so obvious that she chided herself for not thinking of it before.

Why not just erase any traces of her accessing the CCTS once she was done?

If anyone asked her why she had Jaune's information, she could say that she had met him and wished to correspond.

That wouldn't be a lie.

* * *

**All RWBY FanFiction shippers, be advised. Curcuit Breaker is currently rolling out a new story. At this time, Lancaster is a no go. How copy?**

**In all seriousness, welcome to a new romance story in the RWBY fandom. I did say that I would begin a new one with the completion of One-Night Brand. I did make good on my promise on the romance part. What I didn't do was make it a Lancaster ship.**

**Why is that?**

**It's my opinion that at this point, Lancaster has become popular enough that it's not really a crack ship. I mean, when I first rolled out my Dragon Slayer, this ship was sort of a thing, but not really something many poeple paid attention to. I would like to think that Circuit Breaker falls within that same vein.**

**So how about some of these names for the ship?**

**Curcuit Breaker? Is this the most popular one? What is its meaning derived from?**

**Arc Reactor? Cute.**

**Lost Change? Eh, not feeling it.**

**JcPenny? Someone needs to elaborate more on this one.**

**Robotic Knights? Kind of haphazardly put together in my opinion.**

**Arculus Rift? What's the story behind this one?**

**There's one other name, but I don't even want to get into that one.**

**For those of you wondering why this is rated M where there is clearly no mature content to be seen, I'm simply doing this to leave myself room for the possibility of mature content down the line. There's no telling if it will happen, but better to leave myself some room just in case.**

**I swear that some of you just thought of dirty things. I know that you deviants are out there.**

**Bear with the less than creative art cover. Right now, I am not a good artist as I still have a long way to go. I will get something better up in the future.**

**So what do you all think about this pilot chapter? Yes, I did say pilot chapter. I anticipate more to come. What'll happen, I don't know, but I'll think of something, just like I always do. If you sight any grammar issues, let me know too.**

**Thanks for reading and I hope to see you all around next time.**

_**"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand**_** firm."**

**Abraham Lincoln**


	2. RUN AND GUN FOR FUN

**CHAPTER 2: RUN AND GUN FOR FUN**

**Remnant**

** Kingdom of Vale**

** October 29th**

** 80 Years After the Great War**

Penny had just made several grievous miscalculations that could result in her losing the one person that she knew who could become her first true friend.

The first miscalculation that she had completely overlooked was that while obtaining Jaune's information, it never occurred to her that if he answered his scroll, she would have to explain just how she had obtained his information. Perhaps his memory wasn't as selective, but she didn't want to take a chance at such a risk. If he asked questions, then he might begin to suspect her. That could lead to mistrust and the time they had spent together three days prior would be all for nothing.

The synthetic girl considered her options. She could simply say that she had called the school and asked for his information, but that presented the potential problem of exposing herself too soon. She did have to keep her nature a secret and that meant speaking to as few people as possible.

Her next solution was to simply opt for the truth, in which case Jaune might ask her a bunch of questions as to how she had managed to obtain his contact information. Depending on how she answered, she would be either lying to him or lying to Atlas and neither choice was appealing.

A third path was to simply pass it off as him forgetting that he had given her his information, but then how would she account for the fact that she had his information and he didn't have hers? Plus, he had already seen her when she lied. He might not realize the meaning behind her hiccups, but if he saw enough times, he would begin to realize something.

And she was just getting started.

The second miscalculation that Penny had not accounted for the wait time between their first outing and the next time they would participate in an outing. She was uninformed as to the proper social etiquette. She didn't know how much time was sufficient before she could invite the idea of them getting together to have fun. Of course she wanted to spend more time with Jaune, but she had to respect his individuality not to mention he had responsibilities as a student at Beacon Academy.

After she had retrieved his information, she had noted that he was the leader of Team JNPR. That carried with it immense amounts of work; it was no secret that being team leader required additional duties and studies in addition to the regular schedules that all academy students needed to fulfill. In that regard, her opinion of him grew higher.

Getting back to the point, maybe it would be best to ask him when would be a good day and time to meet again. She didn't want to be nosy, but she really wanted to see him again and she couldn't be sure he would be coming back to the city unless she scheduled a time with him.

As for the third miscalculation, Penny had no idea what she would do with him should they be able to see each other again. She had done her own research out of curiosity, but what she found was even more confusing than her initial ignorance on the matter. There were so many ways that people spent time together, yet not all of them were necessarily for everyone and that was the crux of the problem. The synthetic girl had no idea what Jaune's likes and dislikes were. She could only gauge his personality with any degree of certainty, not his hobbies or interests. If only their conversation had gone on in length.

She was conflicted as to how to proceed from this juncture. If she were capable of asking for help, she would have done so. Unfortunately, the only people that she could contact at this time were General Ironwood, her father Pietro Polendina, and Winter Schnee. The soldiers and scientists tasked with watching her growth didn't seem like they would understand her troubles. They weren't experts when it came to social interactions, only in dealing with her functionality, hardware and software included.

Penny had little need for a room besides a quiet place to do her own thinking. Frankly speaking, she did not require any sort of necessities for survival that humans and faunus needed. Food, water, sleep, all of them she was capable of partaking in and they could provide her with energy, but it was more efficient to use dust to replenish her systems in all ways, but maybe there was merit in having the ability to do all the things that a normal person could. It would lend itself to her being more genuine.

Not that such a sentiment mattered when the only people who knew about her being a synthetic were the people tasked with working on her.

_What should I do?_ Penny had asked herself that question many times.

The ginger-haired girl felt her legs curl to her chest as she hugged herself tight. She had no idea that making friends was this complicated. If she had known, maybe she would have done a little more thinking before she set out hoping to make friends, but she didn't want to stop now that she had someone that could be her best friend.

It would be so easy to make a call to him right now. All she would have to do was mentally input his number into her system and she could talk to him without the need of a scroll. In fact, she was tempted to just do it right now. Her eyes staring at the rather stark white color of the walls surrounding her was becoming bothersome.

Penny needed a change of scenery, so she made her way out of the room and went for the balcony. The place that she was staying at had the advantage of being many stories up, affording her a view of the City of Vale. Officially, she was a part of Atlas Academy while also being a top-secret asset of the Atlas Military. Accordingly, her trip here was paid for in full and all accommodations were specifically for herself.

Taking a few flight of stairs up and then reaching the roof, she carefully opened the door and was greeted with the sun shining down on her face. A blue sky greeted her with not a single could within sight of her optics. A slight breeze caught her hair and she felt the flutter between every strand. She closed her eyes, simply basking in the feeling.

The feelings that she was experiencing before were going away and being replaced with a more focused and relaxing state. It was a strange yet wonderful gift that she was able to possess such ability to think and rationalize like a human could. It made her existence all the more haphazard and less static. Some would argue that this personality matrix of hers was unnecessary; it introduced human error and wasn't the point of a machine to eliminate error, or at least minimize it?

Penny opened her eyelids once more. In the distance, she could spot Beacon Academy, separated from the rest of civilization, which more or less served the purpose of inspiring others to reach this difficult-to-reach place.

"I wonder if Jaune's doing something fun right now?" Penny smiled sadly. "Maybe he's having fun with his team."

Once she spoke those words, the girl with green eyes began picturing what he could be doing with his other teammates. It was noon time right now; surely they were eating lunch together and talking about classes or homework or maybe they were discussing what to do after all of that was done. Maybe they were all done with their work and they were having fun. Maybe

She knew who they were, their names, their general history, and some other miscellaneous details. She had lifted all of this while hacking into the CCTS to retrieve Jaune's information. It was an impressive bunch that he led, truly she wouldn't deny him that much praise.

But she couldn't help the feeling of being left out.

For some reason, she felt all of his previous reservations go out the window as she made her call. She bit her lips and waited.

One ring.

Nothing so far.

Two rings.

Not quite.

Three.

_"Uh, hello?" _That was Jaune's voice.

"H-hi, Jaune!" Penny now forgot that she had to say something, but fortunately, she was quick enough to formulate a sentence. "It's Penny!"

_"Penny?"_ The blonde sounded surprised. _"Hey, it's good to hear from you, but out of curiosity, when did I-"_

"Can I see you again?" Penny didn't want to cut him off, but she really wasn't prepared to be interrogated. "I-I mean, can we… be together… as friends?"

_ "Um, are you saying you want to hang out?" _Jaune rephrased her question. _"As in get together some time, go do cool stuff together?"_

"Yes!" Penny's chipperness was starting to show more. "But only if you have the time! I wouldn't want to impose on your time!"

_"It's cool, Penny!" _Jaune's laugh was lively. _"Really. As for when I'm available…"_

This was now a happy day.

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

**November 1st**

**80 Years After the Great War**

Once again, Jaune found himself kind of proud of himself. The first time he had met Penny, he had gotten her to have a coffee with him and they seemed to hit it off in that brief but interesting time spent together. Frankly speaking, he didn't think what happened was all that special, but it must've been enough seeing as the ginger-haired girl had went out of her way to call him and ask him to go out with her.

At the time of taking the call, Jaune was in the middle of a lunch period with his teammates. Usually, he tried not to let distractions like a scroll call get to him, but when he saw the then-unknown number, he did a double take. He didn't make a habit of handing out his personal information to just anyone, so he answered, curious to see who he knew would be calling him.

Naturally, he was glad to hear Penny's voice. Just listening to her asking for a time they could be buddy-buddy was enough to make his already good mood soar higher. Even though he couldn't see her face, he got the feeling that calling him was a nerve-wracking affair for her. Considering her social inexperience, it was understandable and that was coming from a guy that had a questionable social game.

When asked by his teammates who that was, Jaune simply said that it was a friend asking him to show him around town. He intentionally kept his answer vague because he was still kind of afraid of being made fun of if he said that he was going to be with a girl and just spending time with her. Team JNPR was good to him, but even they made fun of his failure to court the opposite sex. Yes, his ability with girls was a sore spot.

Anyway, after assuring Penny that he would be more than glad to see her again, he informed her of his best times and she too had supplied her availability. Three days, here he was, waiting for her to arrive.

Jaune was considerably early, thirty minutes before their agreed-upon meeting time. Although they hadn't established a firm friendship between the two of them, the teenage boy was all about taking commitments seriously. Plus, he didn't want to be the one responsible for souring her perception of friendship.

What he was worried about most was what they were going to be doing together. While they had decided that today would be a good time to get to know each other better, it never occured to either of them what exactly they ought to be doing. In hindsight, what mattered the most at the time was making sure that she knew that calling him or texting him wasn't a bad thing. Now, he was going in cold turkey without a good feel for what Penny liked to do. The best thing he could manage was to casually walk the shopping district of the city and hoping something would come up as they perused.

Jaune checked the time again. Five more minutes to go.

It might have been a little excessive, but his eyes were casually scanning around for the girl in question. He had a feeling that she was going to be the type to be early as well, but maybe not as much as he was. Whatever the case may be, he would remain vigilant.

His eyes did a scan again and then he spotted a familiar head of bright orange hair.

"Penny!" Jaune waved to her while calling out. "Over here!"

She spotted him almost immediately after he said her name and her face was nothing but smiles and sunshine.

"Jaune!" Penny eagerly greeted him. "Salutations!"

"Hey." He nodded to her. "So, I just realized this, but we didn't exactly talk about what we were going to do, so I was thinking we could head to the shopping district and see if there's anything cool going on there. Does that sound good to you?"

"Yes!" She nodded her head, but frowned slightly. "But what about you? Do you want to go there too?"

"I'm sure we'll find something there that we can both enjoy." Jaune waved off her concern. "And we really can't find something to do, we'll make it up as we go. Oh, but if you've got somewhere in mind-"

"Let's go!" Penny was already grabbing his hand and heading off.

And so the two of them took to the streets, hand in hand, simply looking around. It was Friday night and there were plenty of people around, so they looked like another pair of teenagers having fun just like everyone else.

One thing that Jaune took note of as he and Penny walked through the streets was how she seemed enthralled by many things that he didn't think were all that exciting personally speaking. Everything from items displayed in windows, food vendors, street music, even other people going about their business. It all seemed to fascinate her to an unusual degree. It looked like she wasn't kidding when she said that she didn't get out all that often.

Watching her act like a child in a candy store was sort of fun in and of itself. It was a reminder to him that innocence was still very much alive in the world and it was worth protecting for as long as possible before the reality of adult life sunk in. He could only imagine when that time would come for his compatriot. He hoped that she could squeeze as much time as possible into what little time she had left. After all, she was his age, so it wouldn't be hard to believe that soon, she wouldn't be able to do stuff like this as often.

Or at least that was he thought given her status as a student at Atlas Academy and everything he knew about being a student at Beacon Academy.

"Jaune?" Penny tugged at his arm. "Is something wrong?"

"Hm?" Jaune realized that he had wandered off a bit and quickly reoriented his attention. "No, nothing's wrong. I was just admiring you."

"A-admiring me?" Penny seemed caught off-guard by that. "B-but I haven't done anything praiseworthy."

"Well, it's not so much about something you as it is how you're acting." Jaune chuckled. "I've never seen someone so lively about stuff that most people consider casual or common. It's.. endearing."

He wouldn't outright admit that he found her behavior to be cute and nice to witness. It sounded good in his head, but he couldn't find a way to say it out loud that would make it sound anything other than weird or creepy. Or both.

"O-oh." Penny bowed her head. "I-I've just never been able to experience things like what I'm experiencing now. I've heard so much about the world from my father, but I've never been afforded the chance to take part myself."

"No need to get embarrassed about that." Jaune squeezed her hand. "If you want to try something out or something, just let me know. That's why I'm here after all."

"Really?" Penny gazed up at him, a slight tint in her cheeks. "Is that okay?"

"Sure it is." Jaune smiled to reassure her. "What are friends for, right?"

His words had the desired effect and she stopped questioning if it was reasonable to ask to do something. In the end, he felt like she could make anything fun because her personality was just so damn contagious. He only wished that he could harness her ability to inspire certain emotions in others like she could with her happiness. Maybe then he could get Nora to stop eating so many pancakes and start taking training a little more seriously, but then again, what would be the point of Ren being present?

"Here, if you're having trouble finding something that catches your eye, I'll get you started." Jaune began thinking back to all the hours he spent at malls with his sisters. "How about we start with something simple, like an arcade?"

"An arcade?" Penny tilted her head to his left. "As in, the place where you insert quarters into machines to play games?"

"The one and only." Jaune found her description amusing. "I'll even show you how to play a few of the games. I'm a little rusty, but I think I can at least pull off a decent high score on some of the games."

Besides trying to inspire the ginger-haired girl, there was one other reason why the leader of Team JNPR chose an arcade. For one thing, it was a familiar location. Also, it was one of the few places that he could say that he was in his element. There was also the fact that he wanted to show off for a bit. He felt that he ought to show his newest friend that he was competent at something because all she had to go on was his word.

It was time to prove that he could put his money where his mouth was. He had already said enough to get the ball going. Now he actually had to deliver.

Imagining Penny's disappointed face was both hard and disheartening.

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

When they first arrived at the arcade, she took note of the various machines lining up the room. By her calculation, there had to be at least several dozen in here. Due to the number of games available, there were a plethora of people occupying the space, either currently active in playing or waiting their turn. There were one or two small groups scattered around here and there, but for the most part, everyone was doing their own thing.

It was all new to her. The sights of so many neon lights, the sounds of music and sound effects, it was a sight that she had no idea could exist, but there was something strangely enticing about it.

"Since you're new to this kind of place, I'll show you around." Jaune was taking the lead. "I can show you how to play a game, but like I said, I'm a bit rusty, so my results may not be great."

"I look forward to learning!" Penny grinned. "What do you recommend first?"

"Well, since you're new, I'd recommend something non-competitive to start." Jaune scanned all around before zoning in on something. "Why don't you try a claw crane first?"

She nodded a couple times before he led her to his left and took a few turns before they came upon a row of machines that looked similar. All of them sported windows with a claw hanging over an opening. Each machine sported different types of stuffed animals with varying colors.

"They're so cute!" Penny couldn't help but fawn over them. "I want one!"

"You think so?" Jaune couldn't help but lightly snicker. "Well, let's see if we can get one. I'll show you how to get one. Maybe I'll be able to get one for you."

"That would be wonderful!" Penny flashed him her best smile. "Please do, Friend Jaune!"

"Well, how can I fail now?" Jaune casually stepped up to one the machines. "Alright, here it goes."

Once he settled on a machine full of prizes to win, he fished into his pocket and retrieved some change, carefully inserting the coins before taking a good look at what was inside before making a move. His brow furrowed and he looked to be concentrating really hard. It suited him strangely enough.

Focusing her optics back on what he was doing, she noted how his hand carefully moved the joystick around, but not making any immediate move to lower the claw. This lasted for about fifteen seconds before he then paused with his free hand over the large button. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, then opened them and pressed the button.

The three-pronged claw lowered itself and reached for the item below it. Before the claw could completely come down, Jaune then pressed the big button again and Penny noted how the claw responded by instantly clamping down on its prey before lifting up and moving to deposit the stuffed animal.

He reached in and gently retrieved his spoils: a striped tiger plushie.

"He's all yours." Jaune handed it to her. "Or she, it's your choice."

"You don't want him?" Penny wasn't sure if taking this was right.

"I'd feel better if you took it." Jaune responded. "I did win it for you, after all. Consider it your first gift from your new friend."

Well, when he put it that way, she couldn't say no, so she accepted his gift, hugging it close to her. She would make sure to take care of it and treasure it, that much she did know for sure. She wasn't sure what people normally did with stuffed animals, but she could always look it up later once this outing was finished.

"So, you think you can take this thing on?" Jaune gestured to the claw machine. "This one's on me."

"Yes!" Penny nodded. "I will gladly give this game an attempt!"

She was going to do more than merely attempt to win. She was going to win. After his gesture to her, she felt the need to make sure that he knew that their friendship wasn't one-sided. It needed to be a mutually beneficial relationship, at least that's what seemed like the ideal thing for a friendship.

The green in her irises processed all the information that she needed to properly secure another prize. This combined with her memory of how he played made for quick work. She guided the claw to the ideal location before pressing the button, taking note of when exactly to click again. From there, it was just a matter of watching her own winning fall into her hands.

This time, the machine produced a phoenix bird.

"Here!" Penny proudly displayed it. "This is yours!"

"You can keep it." Jaune shook his head. "This is your first time playing, so I thi-"

"Please take it!" Penny shoved it into his chest while stepping very close to him to plead. "My father once told me that a decent person always repays a favor, so that is what I intend to do."

"Eh." Jaune appeared unsure for a moment about how to proceed, but he put up no further resistance. "Thanks."

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"For what?"

"For giving me a gift and for teaching me how to play this game!"

"Huh. I never thought I'd be thanked for something like this, but you're welcome."

And true to her words, she meant her gratitude. Surely, this must be something that he considered to be uneventful for him considering how he handled himself. The fact that he had willingly taken the time to show her how to do it was what mattered most. Now she could do it herself. This was now without a doubt her most useless skill, but she couldn't find any reason to discard it.

"So how about another game?" Jaune said while surveying the area. "I think we can try something more in line with what we're training for?"

"'What we're training for?'" Penny mirrored his words, lacing in her own confusion.

"I want to be a huntsman. You want to be a huntress." Jaune pointed out. "Lots of people want to kill Grimm, so it's only natural that there be a few games centered around monster hunting. I'll show you my personal favorite one."

Once again, they moved to another section of the arcade. From the look of it, this place featured more aggressive fighting games, many of them from a first-person perspective. Many of the games feature weapon replicas of swords and guns and players were systematically working on slaying the enemies on the screen by responding with the appropriate physical action. Of course, none of it was what actual combat was like, but everyone playing was having fun and that was the point.

"This is Grimm Grenadier." He was already inserting coins and handling the prop weapon. "Basically, it's blowing up bad guys a lot. It's co-op, so we can play together."

"Roger that." She honestly sure what she was doing, but she followed his lead.

It turned out that this game really was as simple as he made it out to be, but the variation made a rather easy premise into something more unpredictable. Enemies coming in from all sides, grenade types affecting maximum damage output, environmental changes, it constantly changed pace in order to avoid boredom.

Granted, this sort of thing was easy for Atlas's top secret weapon. She had spent thousands of hours in training simulators that had far worse combat conditions and yet this experience was fun.

The way that Jaune acted when they were playing was charming to watch in a way. Gone was any sort of seriousness replaced by a more childlike exuberant expression. Together, they were coordinating their attacks, bailing each other out of tough situations, and just doing whatever together.

There were so many practical and functional fallacies with this game speaking from the perspective of a weapon of mass destruction. What they were doing was purely for entertainment purposes and nothing more. Everything about it was so unrealistic; from the way the weapons were represented on-screen to the sound effects to the way that Grimm behaved, all of it was clearly the work of someone who only had surface-level knowledge of what it meant to fight the monstrosities.

But despite all of these illogicalities, she couldn't help but feel lively as she and Jaune did their thing without a care in the world.

_This is really fun._ Penny pulled the trigger again and watched an on-screen Beowolf disintegrate.

She fired again.

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

Jaune felt the airship ascend into the sky, feeling fulfilled. This afternoon had been one of the most relaxing that he had experienced ever since coming to Vale. There was a time where he had briefly figured out the most popular sites in the city, but at the time that was all he could afford to do. He assumed that he would return to actually have some entertainment, maybe with a friend or two and he had accomplished that.

Penny, whether she acknowledged it or not, was extremely good at playing arcade games. They had spent a fair amount of time inside and as they kept playing, it became clear that either she was really gifted with this or she just picked things up quickly. For someone who claimed to have no experience in arcades, her performance said otherwise. Hell, she was beating him at his own game and he had considerable time and experience on his side.

Although his pride was wounded, the one thing that managed to bring him back down to Remnant was how the girl with green eyes appeared so vibrant. It was clear as day that she had fun and in the end, that was the most important thing: to have fun. Winning and all of that was cool, but if everyone walked away happy, that was even better, at least the knight liked to think that was the case.

Jaune checked the time on his scroll. He would have to hurry if he wanted to grab some food from the cafeteria before it closed. While he did manage to get some snacks for himself and Penny, it was only to tie him down until he got back to Beacon. Although junk food was awesome, it was no substitute for a meal consisting of quality food.

Maybe the rest of Team JNPR was there. He did say that he would hopefully be back in time for dinner, so maybe they were waiting for him to get back.

As he used his finger to scroll down hist list of contacts, his eyes fell upon Penny's number, which had recently been added before they had parted. Honestly, he wasn't sure how she knew his number and there was a nagging feeling that maybe he was better off not knowing, but now that he had her number, things didn't have to be weird. They could communicate with each other whenever possible.

In the back of his mind, a small part of Jaune was cheering. Whenever it came to girls, getting their number was a major step forward in the relationship, or at least that's how he understood what went on between boys and girls. He wouldn't be so hasty as to label their relationship with a certain word, but they seemed to be heading somewhere. Only time would tell what the two of them would become.

The leader of Team JNPR stared down at the City of Vale as he rose higher into the sky. He could only wonder one thing.

_What's she doing now_

* * *

**I'm honestly still trying to get my footing when it comes to writing this story. It needs to be a slow burn so that proper development can happen, but I don't want to bore you all. There will lots of trial and error going forward, that's for sure.**

**Reception so far has been positive and I hope to keep up that momentum. Thanks to everyone who chose to give this story a chance. If you can, reviews and feedback are appreciated. Apologies for grammatical errors. I will fix them as necessary.**

**Thanks for reading.**

_**"The friendship that can cease has never been real."**_

**St. Jerome**


	3. FRIENDSHIP IS COOL?

**CHAPTER 3: FRIENDSHIP IS COOL?**

**Remnant**

**City of Vale**

**November 3rd,**

**80 Years After the Great War**

Jaune wasn't the type of guy that cared much for eating unhealthy food. It wasn't that he disliked junk food or avoided it due to some strict diet. It was more like he had grown out of the temptation of wanting to eat something unhealthy every time he saw something of that nature. At first, he felt kind of weird for thinking that way, but when he asked his friends at Beacon if they experienced the same thing, he was finding that, with exceptions, everyone else seemed to have either grown out of impulse eating or developed a tolerance.

That made him feel better about himself, but it also made him wonder something: did his newest friend think the same way? Did Penny not care for sweets like he did? Did she not like them at all?

The reason that he was thinking about cake and the ginger-haired girl was because as he walked with the rest of Team JNPR to get some weekly items that they needed, they had passed by a bakery shop and the leader just so happened to see a cake decorated with white frosting and actual little carrots dotting the edges, probably also frosting as well. The bright orange color made him think about Penny.

"Jaune, what is it?" Pyrrha noticed that he had stopped and went to his side. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I was just looking at that cake." Jaune pointed to the dessert in question behind glass. "It reminded me of someone."

He had chosen not to tell anyone about Penny for the time being simply because he didn't feel a need to tell them. He still had no intention of being made a laughing stock on account of what could be perceived as him trying to make up a girl to console himself and for being a part of the Lonely Hearts Club.

"The carrot cake?" Pyrrha followed his finger. "Who does it remind you of?"

"A friend." Jaune didn't want to talk about this anymore. "Anyway, we need to get going. We'll lose Nora and Ren like this."

Tearing his gaze away from the shop, he swiftly picked up the pace in order to catch up with his other two members with his own partner not too far behind. There would be time to think about that later. Right now, he had more immediate things to do here.

The sun had reached its peak point in the sky and it showed the amount of people walking in the streets as well as the number of vehicles that were driving into downtown, but that was to be expected given that it was the weekend.

But it wasn't just that there was fun to be had at this time of the week when most people were off from work. This year, Beacon Academy was hosting the Vytal Festival. As a result, the City of Vale was making its preparations. Business was going to boom while the tournament and other relevant events were taking place. Even with so many months ahead of everyone, some were already making their preparations.

And now that he was thinking about it, Jaune had yet to talk to his teammates about entering the Vytal Tournament. The deadline for entry was still a bit away, but he really did want to participate if it was at all possible. After all, despite his progress, the rest of Team JNPR was doing well all things considered. Their performance overall was actually pretty good and with time, it would get even better once his combat performance.

Then he thought of something else. Since Penny said she was representing Atlas Academy, wasn't she going to compete in the Vytal Tournament as well? If she was, were they going to face off?

The blonde knight took a moment to realize that even though their time spent together was brief, they never really talked about being a professional Grimm killer. It was just a little fact that the two of them knew about each other and nothing more, which didn't feel right considering that coming to a huntsman academy wasn't a walk in the park nor was a decision to be taken lightly.

Maybe he ought to talk about it more once he got to see here again.

Again?

Was he already anticipating another not-date?

As much as he enjoyed his time with Penny, he wasn't sure if how much time he could afford. He did have duties and responsibilities as team leader.

Jaune raised his head slightly to witness Nora and Ren in front of himself and Pyrrha. The N and R of JNPR were doing their own little spiel that was probably all kinds of bonkers. It was kind of entertaining having an in-house comedy duo. It was a free show and it cost nothing to any of them. His eyes flickered to his own partner, who looked to be mirroring his own feelings on the matter, the smile on her face being the proof.

He liked this team and the four of them got along so well that it was kind of amazing that there had been absolutely no tension. However, just like with Penny, he didn't know their reasons for coming to this school and trying to obtain a huntsman license. He didn't know who they were inside and out.

But then again, none of them had known each other for very long, so his concerns, while reasonable, weren't all that big in the grand scheme of things.

"Hey, Pyrrha?" Jaune wanted to test the waters. "Let me ask you a hypothetical question. Say that we meet a student coming from one of the other three academies to fight in the Vytal Tournament. What do you think we should do? Greet them? Size them up?"

"Why do you ask that question?" Pyrrha regarded him with a puzzled expression. "Is it everyone around us preparing for the festival?"

"That's sort of it, but I've got another reason for asking." Jaune shrugged a little. "That friend I just mentioned, she's attending Atlas Academy, at least that's what she said. I was just thinking that we might have to fight her."

"...I see." Pyrrha's expression was strange-looking for a moment before she smiled. "You think this might cause problems."

"Well, I don't know for sure." Jaune bit his bottom lip. "I just know that she's different from anyone I've ever met. She's not well-adjusted to social situations. It's kind of dumb, but I'm worried what a fight between us might mean."

"What is she like?" Pyrrha asked.

"Well, if I had to describe her in one work, it would be… spirited." Jaune let his memories guide his words. "She's got this unending amount of energy to do anything and everything. I've never seen anyone so excited to do things that are so normal. I can't help but be jealous of her in that way."

"Judging by the way you're describing her, she sounds sheltered." Pyrrha came to her own conclusion. "Does she not get out."

"That's the impression I was getting, but I don't know all the details." Jaune shook his head. "Really, I think what she really needs is friendship and… well… I don't know what'll happen if we fight and all that. Maybe I'm just overthinking things."

It was hard to find people to become friends with. So many factors were taken into account just for the formation of a friendship and then there were other considerations after that relationship was formed. Attempting to navigate through it all felt like trying to find a needle in a haystack: impossibly difficult.

"If you're concerned about how she will react to such a scenario, maybe you ought to ask her how she would feel if it happened." Pyrrha's answer came after maybe ten seconds or more. "You can clear the air about what to do. It might not even happen at all, so there's no need to worry."

Yeah, that would be a nice thing if it didn't happen, but there was one problem with that particular scenario. The blonde knight wanted to win the tournament and he had a feeling that Penny wasn't about to go down without a fight either.

Jaune realized he wasn't looking where he was going and he managed to look up and that afforded him enough time to see and process the girl on his mind right in front of him and collide into him, this time with enough force to send him flat on his back and take her with him.

When all was said and done, he laid flat on the street with her on top of him, a most embarrassing scene, especially in public.

"Ugh." Jaune felt his aura kick in to lessen the pain he was feeling. "Penny, I am so sorry for running into you."

"I found you, Jaune!" Penny's response to him was much different as she wrapped her arms around him while still pressed against him. "This is a most joyous day!"

Well, it was a good thing that at least one of them was immune to the judgemental stares being thrown their way.

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

Penny had not been expected to meet with Jaune today. She had simply wandered off of her own accord and was roaming the streets just doing her own thing when she came into contact with him. Naturally when it came to her first and only friend, she was always enthusiastic about seeing him. Maybe now she could do things with him just like the last time that had been together.

It took her another moment to realize that perhaps this was not the best place to be drawing attention to herself. Her audio receptors were picking the sounds of people all around them disapproving of the position they were currently in. Her getting up and then helping him up was not because of any shame she was experiencing, but in order to spare him from any further shame.

"I apologize!" Penny clasped her hands together. "Please forgive me! I have shamed you in public, friend!"

"Penny, please stop." Jaune gently grabbed her hands and placed them back at her side. "It's okay. You made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes."

"But-" Penny felt like protesting.

"If you want to make it up to me, smile." Jaune wasn't interested in punishment. "That'll make all this go away."

"O-okay." Penny took a moment to compose herself. "How does this look?"

She had not completely removed the negative feeling within herself and as a result, her smile didn't come out as it normally did. It felt awkward and she felt that she was letting down his request. What she did not expect was seeing him laughing, albeit attempting to suppress that feeling. It was far from what she was expecting and in all honesty, it was much more preferable than him being upset, but she did not understand why he was reacting this way.

"I'm sorry." Jaune managed to get control of himself. "It's just that you looked so funny making that smile. I couldn't resist."

"Oh." Penny took a second to think about that. "Then… you're not upset with me?"

"What? No, of course not." Jaune shook his head with a smile. "Why would I be? You're just glad to see me and I feel the same way."

"T-thank you." Penny felt pretty good about him saying that. "So what brings you out here on this lovely day?"

"I'm out here with my teammates. We're getting some errands done." Jaune looked over to his companion. "Speaking of which, this Pyrrha Nikos. She's my partner and a pretty awesome one at that. Pyrrha, this is Penny Polendina."

"Hello." The redhead stepped up and offered a hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise!" The girl with carrot hair replied.

There was something about the face that Miss Nikos was displaying that made the synthetic wonder something. It could be on account of a misinterpretation of the situation, but the expression that the Mistral native was displaying seemed unsure or unsettled and it only lasted temporarily before shifting into a pleasant smile.

"Jaune-Jaune!" A voice called to them. "What's the hold-up?!"

"We might as well introduce you to the rest of my team." Jaune motioned in the direction of the voice. "I'm sure you'll like them."

"I'm sure that I will." Penny nodded her head.

He moved forward and she followed closely, not quite by his side yet not completely behind him either. To her other side was the four-time Mistral champion; the three of them walked some twenty meters before coming into contact with two other individuals, one with black hair and the other with orange hair not unlike her own.

"Ren, look!" The girl seemed to understand that similarity. "A fellow orange-head! We have to be sisters!"

"I don't think that's the case, Nora." The boy called Ren regarded his companion with amusement before looking at the synthetic. "Apologies for my partner. She can be a bit inventive at times. My name is Lie Ren and this is-"

"Nora Valkyrie!" The bubbly girl sounded off her name. "Nice to meet you, unknown sister until now!"

"Like I said, she can conjure some wild ideas." Ren explained. "I would advise you not to take what she says seriously."

"Ren, how can you say that?!" Nora appeared taken aback by her partner's words. "Do you know how hard it is to find anyone with hair color like this?!"

Penny watched the two of them talking to each other with the most puzzled look on her face. This sort of relationship was unlike any she had ever witnessed or experienced herself. She wasn't sure what to make of it. It felt genuine yet the attitude was far from what she thought to be happy. It would appear that her understanding of friendship and intimacy might be more lacking than even she had anticipated.

"If you're confused about what's going on, it's fine." Jaune put a hand on her shoulder. "I don't understand what they're saying half the time and I live with them at Beacon."

"I see." Truthfully, Penny only understood his explanation, no the verbal exchange going on. "Are they friends?"

"Eh, you could say that." Jaune appraised, yet he seemed pensive. "Although I think the two of them might have feelings for each other."

"Fearless leader, we're together, but we're not together-together." Nora caught on to his observation. "It's just not like that."

"I wonder about that." Jaune raised an eyebrow. "Anyway, you didn't let my friend introduce herself."

"Um, right!" Penny snapped out of her stupor and stood up straight. "My name is Penny Polendina. It's a pleasure to meet you both!"

"The pleasure's all ours." Ren responded.

"So long-lost sister of mine." Nora appeared to be fixed on them being related, even if it was not possible. "Do you like pancakes?"

"I do not know." Penny answered honestly. "I've never eaten one before."

"Blasphemy!" Nora declared loudly. "Heresy! Treachery! We have to feed this girl some pancakes right now!"

"Nora." Ren lightly hit his friend on the top of her head. "Don't force the girl."

"Owie!" Nora held her head in pain. "Ren, why are you so mean to me?!"

"Because you just met her." Ren reminded the short girl. "

"So, yeah, this is all of Team JNPR." Jaune pointed to everyone. "A weird but cohesive team."

It was hard to say just what exactly was the team dynamic that composed this team. She assumed they were friends, but what she couldn't assume was how they functioned otherwise. Friendship was as varied as it was complex. It was far from the sort of relationship that she had with Jaune. This felt more chaotic and more open, as if they trusted each other to a very high degree, which made sense given that all of them were counting on each other during a battle, be it with Grimm or otherwise.

Penny wished she could say that her own partner would be as willing to do the same, but just like with everyone associated with her at this time, she couldn't say for sure where professionalism ended and authenticity began. It was all software-boggling to her at times. Mankind truly was amazing to be able to navigate the challenge that was friendship.

In any case, Jaune's teammates appeared to be friendly if nothing else. She wasn't sure if she would get to know any of them more, but she liked to think that she could make more friends.

"It is a pleasure to meet all of you!" Penny reinserted herself back into the conversation.

Jaune gave her a look. "Penny, you said that already."

"...so I did!" Penny recovered somewhat. "I'm sorry! I'm not adept at social interactions!"

"Nobody's blaming you for that." Jaune assured her. "Actually, now that we're talking, do you have any plans right now?"

"None." Penny met eye to eye with her first friend. "I was just roaming the streets, hoping for something to do."

"Great, then you can come with us." Jaune suggested. "We could always use some extra company."

"Yes!" Nora seconded that motion. "I want to get to know my sister!"

"I would not mind." Ren agreed. "You are welcome to come along."

"Yes, please." Pyrrha acknowledged. "The more friends, the better."

It would appear that her previous plans to wander around were not scrapped in favor of something far more preferable. A part of her was slightly anxious about doing this, but it would be rude of her to turn them all down when they gave her to go-ahead to tag along on their weekly errands.

And a small part of her, the selfish part, didn't want to be left alone after she had met them all.

"I would like that!" Penny grinned widely. "Thank you all for having me!"

"It's our pleasure." Jaune offered with his own grin. "We're heading to the market district. We'll show you the way. Maybe we'll find some cool stuff while we're there."

"Sensational!" Penny cheered.

"Let's go, sister!" Nora grabbed her hand. "We've got a lot of catching up to do!"

Penny tilted her head slightly. "But we're not biologically re-"

"Biology, smiology, we're sisters!" Nora ignored her factual statement. "We are most definitely sisters!"

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

Jaune felt that Penny's presence with Team JNPR seemed to enhance the overall experience of them doing a weekly thing. Nora had taken to the new girl immediately. Ren seemed happy that his lifelong friend had found a fast friend.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha hung back with her team leader and the two of them did most of the actual errands while the other three were content to do their own thing. It was like the two of them had become the mom and dad of this team, taking care of what they actually came down to the city to do while the kids played.

First, they stocked up on basic cleaning supplies, then they gathered some basic showering necessities and other bathroom items. That had taken them about an hour to go through. Now they were on their way to a dust store to get some specialized ammunition for everyone except Jaune being that he was the only one on the team that didn't use any sort of ranged weapon.

More specifically, they needed 40mm grenades for Nora, 9mm for Ren, and 7.62 mm rounds for Pyrrha. The leader of Team JNPR, despite not possessing a firearm of his own, was fully aware of his team's weapons and what they needed to be fully functional and deadly in combat.

Nora and Penny were content to browse around the shop and take a look at the latest weapons and armaments available. Ren chose to leave them be for the time being and join his other two teammates.  
"It looks like things are going well." Jaune casually spoke to his male teammate. "What do you think?"

"It's been a long time since I've seen Nora connect with someone so fast." Ren commented with a thoughtful face. "But then again, she warmed up to the two of you fast enough, so maybe it's just good luck."

"Well, whatever the case, it's working." Jaune was content all the same. "I didn't really tell you guys about her because, well… I didn't want to be the butt of another joke."

"Jaune, you know we'd never do that." Pyrrha displayed a disapproving look. "We're not so heartless as to believe that you'd lie about something like this."

"Well, it's water under the bridge at this point." Jaune dismissed his partner's concerns. "Penny met you guys and all's right with the world, or something like that."

Maybe there was a little bit of reservation in himself about fully trusting his teammates. While he had come to terms with how his pride had nearly cost him everything, the knight was only now beginning to understand that old habits die hard. It would take many weeks and months, perhaps even years to fully gain control of his innate desire to do what he could on his own.

Even for non-combat related details like new friendships could matter in the most important ways. Failing to tell them about this for a long time could have resulted in a repeat of what had been occuring in the first few weeks of this semester. That was the last thing that he needed right now after everything.

"What's there to doubt, Jaune?" Ren took his side quickly. "Your new friend's right here and she's becoming Nora's new friend. I would say that you have nothing to worry about."

"Thanks, Ren." Jaune couldn't help but appreciate his battle brother. "You are a true bro."

"Well, at least it wasn't anything life-threatening." Pyrrha amended out loud. "But promise that you'll tell us about things, even if they don't matter to our combative effectiveness."

"I'll work on it." Jaune promised. "I just need to remind myself."

Penny and Nora were completely oblivious to the semi-serious conversation going on between the more emotionally controlled teenagers. The former was explaining the benefits of a particular set of dust rounds while the latter seemed to eat up every word that her fellow carrot-haired companion was speaking. It was good to know that innocence and easy trust weren't bad qualities to have in this day and age.

"So I take it that Penny's from one of the other academies?" Ren moved the conversation along. "What was the academy?"  
"Atlas Academy." Jaune relayed. "But I've never seen her fight before. I've been meaning to ask her how she fights. I'm kind of curious."

"I am as well." Pyrrha seemed interested in this subject. "Based on looking at her, I don't see any particular weapon or style that suits her. Normally, I can at least get a basic reading on a combatant when I see them, but she's different. If anything, she doesn't strike me as the type that does fight."

"Well, she does have aura, that much I can say." Jaune could affirm that much. "So she's got to be able to bust a move."

"Hm." Ren took a moment to think before continuing. "So what do you think of her, Jaune?"

"What, me?" Jaune looked confused by that statement. "I mean, I hang out with her. I do fun stuff with her. I like her, I guess."

"You guess." Ren copied his words with a knowing undertone. "You don't sound sure about that."

"Well, okay, I'm kind of stumbling in the dark here. Penny's not exactly what you'd call typical." Jaune was fumbling for words. "She's… how do I put this? She's not the type of girl that I'm used to seeing or dealing with. She's just so nice and heartwarming and I can't help but find it adorable and cute."

"I see." Ren nodded his head.

"Not like that." Jaune gave the black-haired boy an annoyed look. "She didn't even have a friend before me. I wasn't about to take advantage of her lack of social skills and make a move on her."

"I never said that you would." Ren said. "But it does make you wonder…"

The idea of becoming romantically involved with Penny was an alien concept. It wasn't that she wasn't a girl worth the effort. It was just that his mind was already set on someone else and that was simply all there was to it.

In many ways, it was a good thing to be just friends with the green-eyed girl. It allowed him to take a step back and think about how he could better interact with the opposite sex in a way that wouldn't make him out to be some desperate guy. Maybe then approaching girls wouldn't turn into him automatically using a corny pickup line. It was a reflex that he had to fight back and the only exceptions to this rule were girls he considered friends.

"Look, dude, you know that I like Weiss." Jaune made his stance clear. "And honestly, it's kind of for the better that Penny and me not be anything more than friends. This'll help her be more well-rounded in the future. I'm sure once she finds a guy, he'll be awesome and hopefully he'll take care of her."

"That would be nice." Pyrrha sounded wistful. "Wouldn't it?"

Jaune turned to look at his partner. There was a look on her face that made him think that she felt some sort of attachment to what he just said. He had kind of forgotten that she was here and the conversation drifted between himself and Ren.

The two male team members of JNPR exchanged expressions with the shorter shrugging and the other just turning his head back to the girls still roaming the shop without a care in the world.

All good and bad aside, all of these people the knight did consider to be trustworthy and he hoped that in the future, he could come to call them close friends as well, the kind of people that he could trust with his own life unconditionally, but he needed to improve how he dealt with people too.

Describing Penny's problem with dealing with others was an extension to himself as well. It could be argued that he was learning a little bit from her while she learned from him, so it wasn't a one-sided relationship and he was in need of more tip regarding how to beat the game that was socializing.

"Apologies for the wait." The store clerk returned with their order. "Here's everything you requested."

"Thank you." Jaune grabbed two of the cases.

"We appreciate your efforts." Pyrrha carried the other two.

"Penny, Nora, we're leaving." Jaune called out.

"Affirmative!" Penny saluted.

"You got it!" Nora did as well.

They were pretty much done with everything down here. Now it was back to Beacon Academy and back to their school life, which was a shame because he had not gotten a chance to spend some on-on-one time with her.

He'd have to call her to schedule a time.

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

Penny had wished all of Team JNPR a good rest of their day and found herself wandering back to where she was needed.

Just as their profiles suggested, all of Jaune's friends were nice people. They were all starkly different, but it had been a pleasant experience being with them collectively. There may yet be another chance to replicate that same experience with then in the future, but it came down to whether they had the time.

It also occured to the synthetic girl that she only had a brief moment with Jaune. She had spent pretty much all day with Nora, whose energy she could synergize with quite fluidly. There was nothing wrong with this, but the fact that she spent little time with him even when they were in close proximity didn't feel right.

Penny knew that she shouldn't be selfish. That's the kind of thing that detracted friends. Friendship was supposed to be selfless and caring and she didn't want to sabotage what she had right now. Still, the feeling of disappointment didn't go away.

Did Jaune feel the same way?

She didn't know if he did and if she did know and it was that exact feeling, what would that make her feel?

The carrot-haired WMD looked behind her to gaze at the sight of Beacon Academy in the distance, Team JNPR was there right now, in all likelihood getting ready for another week of classes and studying. While not all of their time was spent doing pleasant things, they were together for most of the day, she could imagine. Meanwhile, she had to make do with occasional get-togethers. It didn't feel fair and this once again made her reel herself in. She was just one individual that Jaune knew.

Penny decided that once she returned, she would need to send a text message and get a bead on what her first friend was thinking in regards to spending more time with her. She really wanted to see him again do all sorts of exciting and interesting things with him if he would let her.

That would have to wait though. These next couple of days, she would be doing some more tests, go through some simulations, and possibly go out to exterminate some Grimm as a form of live testing. Being what she was, she demanded constant attention to maintenance and with so much money invested into her, there was no way that Atlas was simply going to let mistakes and errors get into the equation.

It was sad, yet the truth of her existence clearly defined her purpose on Remnant. She was to become its protector and savior. She would rise up to save all of Mankind and the Faunus. Everything else she accomplished was secondary in comparison to protecting the world.

Penny had long accepted that would be her life.

But she still wanted friends.

* * *

**Apologies for a rushed chapter, but recent events have consumed much more of my time that I realized. There will undoubtedly be mistakes in this chapter, so feel free to point them all out.**

**I have little to say about this chapter, but I want to remind all of you: this story is intended to be more simple and straightforward. I don't intend for there to be drama or any high-octane events that shift the tone of the entire story.**

**Thoughts? Reviews and feedback are greatly appreciated.**

**Thanks for reading and I hope you all are as well as you can be in spite of everything going on.**

_**"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."**_

**Ernest Hemingway**


	4. LET'S TALK FAMILY

**CHAPTER 4: LET'S TALK FAMILY**

** Remnant**

** City of Vale**

** November 7th,**

** 80 Years After the Great War**

Penny really wanted to go outside today, she really did, but she had a very specific reason for not going out anymore this week.

As a synthetic being, she had very detailed system logs indicating where she went, what she did, basically all the details about whatever she experienced consciously. Add this to the fact that she wasn't supposed to be going out and interacting with civilians made this all the more difficult for her to stomach. With her numerous violations seeing Jaune, there was no guarantee that the next time her logs were scanned, she would be permanently confined.

The only reason that the carrot-haired girl wasn't being restricted in any way was because she was managing to hide these memories of Jaune and replacing them with some garbage information in its place. It was only a temporary measure and sooner or later, she would have to come clean about what she was doing, but by that point, she hoped to at least have a sort of explanation that would suffice. Her father would be the most understanding; she wasn't sure if General Ironwood would be as lenient.

Penny understood that duty took precedence over whatever relationships she had, even that of Doctor Pietro Polendina. For every soldier, ever sailor, every marine, and every airman, duty to Atlas mattered more than anything else. Some might call it unfair, even cruel. However, that was simply the nature of being a part of the military. She might not be human or faunus in the strictest sense of the word, but she would be sharing the burdens and maybe even the sacrifices that they did.

Yet for all of the logical ways she could rationalize not seeing Jaune, she still wanted to see him badly. She wanted to be with him in person, spend time doing fun and neat things with him, and become a better friend to him. It was a feeling that she knew could be explained, yet not one that she could consciously understand and explain. All she knew for sure was that she wished for his company.

Be that as it may, she still needed to think about herself and about her strategic importance to the Kingdom of Atlas, thus she found the discipline within herself to refrain from going out to see her first friend. Next week, she would definitely find time to meet up with him in person.

Penny activated her heads-up display to scroll down her list of contacts, her eyes resting on Jaune's number. She couldn't be within close proximity to him, but there was nothing stopping her from calling him and just talking to him. As long as she didn't go into territory regarding her nature and anything regarding military information, everything else was fair game according to the rules.

Before she could make the call, she found herself hesitating. Even talking to him made her anxious and he wasn't even going to be able to see her, not even via scroll video call. Actually, now that she thought about it, her initial few moments to a minute when first coming into contact with Jaune was always the most tense for her. Only after comfortably settling into the activity set before them did she begin to act naturally.

In that case, it was better to get a head start and push through her anxiety. She began dialing his number.

One ring passed by her audio receptors, then two.

_"Penny."_ Jaune answered after the second ring. _"That you?"_

"Jaune!" Penny was excited just to hear him. "Hello!"

_"Someone sounds excited to hear me."_ Jaune laughed. _"I'm flattered."_

"Oh. That's splendid!" Penny spoke in an animated fashion. "I-I'm sorry for calling-"

_"Penny, what did I tell you about apologizing?"_ Jaune cut her off.

"To not apologize." Penny realized that she was emotionally charged and tried to simmer down. "I'm… I'll try to do better."

_"Good to hear."_ Jaune seemed satisfied with her answer. _"So, what did you want to talk to me about? You want to meet up?"_

"I wish that I could." Penny smiled sadly. "Unfortunately, I have other business keeping me busy, but I was wondering if we could… talk for a while."

_"I've got a little time to spare."_ Jaune answered. _"Anything in particular you want to talk about."_

The synthetic girl let her processors begin to work. So far so good. She had managed to secure some time for them to have a conversation. Now she had to find a topic that would keep both of them invested. That was where she began to think harder. For all the fun that she did have with him, she wasn't sure what sort of topics or subjects he would enjoy going into detail about.

She pulled up the complete memories of their time spent together; their very first interaction together was them talking about topics that weren't necessarily connected. More specifically, they went into length about her life and what she did in Atlas.

That gave her the idea she needed.

"Tell me about your family." Penny said that, then realized she provided no context for her request and quickly added it. "I've talked about my life so much and I couldn't help but wonder about your life."

She hoped he would accept.

_"Sure, I can talk about my family, although I can't say it'll be an interesting story."_ Jaune remarked. _"Honestly, I'm just a normal guy with some big dreams."_

"But I want to listen." Penny earnestly expressed her desire to hear him out. "I'm sure there's something that I'll like."

_"Alright, if you say so."_ Jaune didn't fight her further. _"So, my family comes from a long line of fighters, some huntsmen and huntresses, others military veterans. In every generation of the Arc family, there's always been at least one in our family that's picked up a weapon of some kind and decided to fight."_

Listening to that bit alone told her quite a bit about him already. If his family had a history of being fighters and he was working to become a huntsman, then that could either mean he was the first of his generation to do so.

"Are you the first?" Penny inquired. "The first to fight?"

_"Actually, yeah." _Jaune confirmed her hypothesis. _"I've got seven sisters and none of them have shown any inclination for fighting."_

"Seven sisters?" Penny tried to picture that. "Is that not hard for your parents? Raising eight children, I mean."

_"Sure it was tough for them."_ Jaune didn't appear phased by this segway. _"But mom and dad always said that no matter how tough it got for them, they were always happy that we were born. They always say that raising a family is the greatest joy that they've ever had."_

A family. That single word alone made the girl with carrot hair think. She would never be able to have a family, not like a normal person could. That was just another thing that separated herself from the rest of the world. Normally, that distinction shouldn't have bothered her. If anything, it should have been a positive for her. It would be one less thing to worry about when facing the enemy.

That didn't stop her thoughts from wandering and asking one simple question: what if she could have a family?

"Your parents sound like wonderful people." Penny complimented.

_"Yeah, they are."_ A wistful tone could be heard in Jaune's voice. _"I just wish they could've been more supportive about me becoming a huntsman."_

"They didn't agree with your choice?" Penny ventured carefully. "Why not?"

_"It all goes back to our history as warriors." _Jaune didn't miss a beat. _"Basically, we've been fighters for so long that it's hard for us to think of ourselves as anything else. My dad never cared for fighting and mom certainly didn't come from a warrior line, so they naturally fit together. I guess they didn't want any of us doing the same."_

There had to be more details surrounding this difference of opinion, but hearing this was enough for the synthetic. It was like looking into a mirror and hearing her own struggles with authority figures. Their reasons for disagreeing with the powers that be weren't the same, but their conflict was born from the same feeling. They just wanted to do what felt right to them, even if it went against their parents.

"I see." Penny took a moment to think of something better to say.

_"I guess you kind of understand?" _Jaune connected their similar situations. _"You know, with your father worrying about you?"_

"Yes." Penny nodded her head. "But if I may ask, what… why did you disobey your parents and come to Beacon Academy?"

_"I'm pretty sure I said this before, but I've always wanted to do important things."_ Jaune had indeed spoken of this before. _"I just don't want… I just don't want to rely on my family so much. I want to become my own man, someone that others can rely on."_

"I see." Penny said.

The more that she spoke with him, the more that she could relate to him.

They could become truly close friends.

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

Jaune's relationship with Penny was unlike any he'd ever had with a girl. Granted, he didn't have any connection with the opposite sex prior to coming to Vale excluding his family, but he got the feeling that even with his lack of experience, there was something atypical about what was going on between him and her.

It was strange, but in a lot of ways, being with the girl with green eyes and carrot hair felt less like a date with a girl and more like an outing with a dude. That might be kind of weird to say considering that she was definitely not a guy, but that's kind of how he felt about it. When it came to boys and men, they did all sorts of things together. Sports, eating, watching sports, playing video games, anything and everything pretty much. As long as everyone was having a blast, it was all good bonding time.

When it came to bonding with girls, there were all sorts of nuances and things to watch out for, at least that's what Jaune felt like was going on if his listening to other dudes talk about dating was anything to go by. It made sense in many ways; gals were biologically different than guys, but it did make him wonder just how some of his fellow men were able to discern all the specifics of the opposite sex.

The whole reason for the blonde knight to be thinking about this was due in no small part to how effortless his relationship with Penny was. In all seriousness, he expected it to be much harder somehow, like he had to work hard to earn true friendship or any meaningful connection, yet here he was, talking to her on the phone like it was the most casual and natural thing in the world. Did that mean he was much better than he realized or maybe he had just found a stroke of good luck?

Whatever the case might be, he wasn't about to waste the opportunity before him. He wanted to make as many friends as he could because like his mother said, strangers were just friends that he hadn't met yet. As naive as that sounded, he still wanted to believe that those words carried some truth.

And now that Jaune was on the subject of talking about family with Penny, he couldn't help but wonder where her curiosity was coming from. He could guess that it had something to do with her complicated relationship with her father, but what specifically was she hoping to relate to while hearing his story?

He didn't get the impression that things were going terrible from how she always presented herself, but there definitely was something there. Actually, now that he thought about it, maybe the whole protective parent aspect is what she was latching onto. She did mention that her father was a bit overprotective of her and even as a trained fighter, that worry still remained. If that was the case, then that made things easier.

"Penny, why are you asking me this?" Jaune decided to be upfront. "Is everything okay with your dad?"

_"If you're worried about me and my father, then don't be."_ Penny sounded noticeably less chipper than he was used to hearing. _"I just wanted to hear what sort of relationship you possessed with regards to your family."_

"Right. Yeah." Jaune pieced together a few things. "I sometimes forget that you don't get out a lot. You were probably wondering if your relationship with your dad is normal and all that."

_"I suppose that could be true."_ Penny conceded partially. _"But I was more inspired by the fact that our feelings for our family and their feelings for us are not dissimilar."_

"Huh." Jaune took a moment to think about it before agreeing. "Now that you mention it, you're right. What are the odds?"

_"I honestly could not say."_ Penny interpreted his question in a literal sense. _"Seeing as I have no concept of how families are supposed to operate besides your own and mine."_

Jaune couldn't help but smile at her very peculiar language, but he was able to grasp her intent all the same. Her viewpoint in conjunction with her experience with family did make sense, but he got the feeling that she didn't really get that family was a very loose term. She was looking at it from a simple and innocent viewpoint.

Naivety was a strange thing to try and grasp. On one hand, so many people wanted to hold onto it, but on the other hand, some people were admonished for retaining naivety when transitioning into the adult world. It was a love-hate relationship that never seemed to end and when it came to what side he would rather be on, the leader of Team JNPR fluctuated between both sides, understanding both sides. However, if push came to shove, he leaned more towards siding with naivety.

"To say family only works one way is like saying there's only one type of food in the world." Jaune tried to make a comparison that was easy to follow along with. "I can't say that I know everything about how a good family works, but there are tons of ways that are great. For me, my family was all about teaching us responsibility while also giving us the ability to decide our own futures."

_"I see."_ Penny was silent for a second. _"My father has a very specific future in mind for me and I've been doing my best to follow it."_

"You don't get a say in your future?" Jaune frowned, a red flag going off in his head. "None at all?"

_"No, I don't, but that's okay."_ Penny didn't even sound like she hated that. _"I've come to accept what the future will bring. I know that I have a purpose, a reason for existing."_

He didn't want to presume anything because arrogance was not a trait that he had in any way, but something about what she just said was concerning to his ears. It sounded wrong to him that a parent could be controlling. Sure, strict parents existed and maybe he didn't agree with that method of parenting in all ways, but he could respect it because there was a reason behind it.

This though?

"You're okay with that?" Jaune didn't want to sound pushy, but he needed to know. "You don't have any problems?"

_"I will not say that I'm absolutely okay with my life, but I accept it because someone has to."_ Penny's energy was slightly sapped. _"It's the same for all of us huntsmen and huntresses. We might be able to choose our jobs, but in the end, we are all dedicating our lives to the greater good, some paying the ultimate sacrifice."_

Yeah, that he could understand. As much as this job did pay well and as much respect and reverence was afforded to those that could defend against the Grimm and other threats, the realization that it wasn't a pretty job was beginning to sink in. Still, it wasn't enough for him to merely accept what she was saying.

"But at least we get to choose who we word for." Jaune pointed out her own words. "So why aren't you getting that choice?"

There were a few moments of silence before Penny posed a question. _"Jaune, did you know that many of the graduates of Atlas Academy ultimately end up joining the military?"_

"Not really." Jaune shook his head. "Penny, wait, are you saying that you're going to join the military once you graduate?"

_"Yes. You could say that my entire enrollment at Atlas Academy is contingent on the condition that I join the military upon graduation."_ Penny's reply came more quickly this time. _"It might not be the path that I chose for myself, but I do accept it nonetheless."_

Judging by what he was hearing, this wasn't something that she could easily get out of and frankly speaking, who was he to try and barge in on her business? He was just her friend; his job was to be supportive of her and whatever she did no matter what. If she did accept this, then he needed to abide by it, only intervening if there was serious trouble.

Besides, it wasn't like they had a long history or knew each other so well. Maybe if he were a close friend or a loved one, he would react differently, perceive things in another way. He knew better than anyone what it was like to have people intrude on things that were better left untouched because of pride, secrecy, or whatever.

"I don't really get it, but I hope you get some joy out of what you do." Jaune did his best not to add any more pressure. "If you need anything, let me know."

_"You being my friend is more than enough, Jaune."_ Penny regained some of her spirit. _"I couldn't ask any more of you."_

She really was humble.

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

They talked a little while more about small things before eventually ending the scroll call. After that, she could only think for a little while. She felt a lot better after speaking with him. The rest of her day ought to fly by smoothly.

The synthetic closed her optics as her mind began to replay her entire conversation with the knight bit by bit. It was redundant reliving the very talk she had just been having moments after the fact. She did it anyway simply because she felt like it. She wanted to analyze each detail to the best of her ability. Just like any normal person, she desired to understand the world better, to get a more complete picture. That included thinking back on her experiencing and seeing if any new insights could be gained.

Penny's previous interactions with Jaune carried two purposes for her. Her primary motivation as well as the most exciting one was for her to personally be happy and create new memories that she would be able to recall fondly because Gods know her window of opportunity grew more narrow with each passing day.

The other reason was so that she could learn how to better interact with people. Her existence would become public knowledge sooner or later and in order to gain the trust of the people, she needed to know as much as she could about them, hence the importance behind spending time outside with friends.

Keeping all of this to herself was sort of unpleasant for her. The carrot-haired girl had this idea that friends shouldn't keep things from each other, especially not something as critical as this. If he were to find out in the future, what would become of their relationship then?

But like with many things in her life, it wasn't up to her what she could or couldn't do with what she knew. She had duties to fulfill, promises to keep, and sacrifices to make. That was just the nature of her being.

However, Jaune finding out about what she was might be coming soon. Penny had noticed that he sounded very interested in her ability to make choices in her life, or rather her lack of the ability to choose. It was most likely connected to him trying to reconcile the differences between his family life and hers, but it could eventually lead to him asking more questions.

Normally, the solution would be to cut herself off from any sort of contact whatsoever. It's what General Ironwood would have recommended as well as her father. If there was no person to speak to, there would be no secrets to reveal. The argument was to the point, but it was not wrong. It would be much easier to sever all ties with her friend in order to preserve a vital secret.

Unfortunately, when it came to friends, that was one place where the synthetic was unwilling to compromise. One way or another, she would make friends and she would keep them forever. As she had said to Jaune, she was perfectly willing and able to dedicate her life to serving and protecting Atlas and soon the rest of the world. It was what she was made for. In exchange for this mantle, she wanted to have at least one thing in her life that she could control, something that she could make her own.

Because Penny had selflessly thrown herself into her training and done exactly as she was told to the letter at all times, her hope was that her one request to have friends would be authorized. One selfish request didn't seem like all that much to ask for in exchange for serving her nation and its people. Of course, she was only thinking strictly from what she could see and her scope of understanding was admittedly limited.

Despite being the daughter of Pietro Polendina, she was also an expensive investment that was made possible with the help of the Atlesian Armed Forces. That meant that for the entirety of her operational lifespan, she would be in service to the military. At any time and for any reason, she could be called upon to do whatever she was needed for, whenever she was needed, and how she was needed. In essence, if ordered to end her friendships, she was obligated to do so.

But even if it came to that, the girl with green eyes wasn't sure that she wouldn't find some other way to retain the relationships that she had gained. She had already proven to be disobedient by leaving to venture out into the City of Vale. That might work against her should she plead her case.

Ultimately, it was General Ironwood that would decide her future and the man was nothing if not uncompromising. He had a vision as to how he saw the world and how things would be ten years from now, even twenty years. That vision included her as the defender and savior of the world. While not unsympathetic or indifferent to the lives and desires of people around him, the headmaster of Atlas Academy believed more in the good of the entirety of Mankind rather than the good of one person or a group of persons and that was what was most worrying.

Penny would have to carefully word what she wanted. Her best chance was to frame her friendship with Jaune as an essential part of her being and failure to maintain that relationship could result in instabilities in her mental processes, but that could be interpreted to mean that her code had to be reconfigured, in which case her father would step in and put his foot down. She might be military property, but it was his genius that saw her realized.

Maybe she ought to call her father and see what he had to say on the matter, although she expected that he too would be a tad bit worried about her most recent developments. Regardless, she searched for his number and began to make the call.

_"Penny, is that you?" _Doctor Polendina's voice came through after two rings. _"How have you been?"_

"Well, father. Very well." Penny responded with her brightest tone. "I actually have a question for you."

_"This is unexpected, but ask away."_ Pietro was always willing to listen. _"What do you want to know?"_

"Father… I've disobeyed orders to remain out of sight." Penny decided to come out with the truth. "I've got into Vale many times and most recently. I understand that you and General Ironwood have told me not to do so, but I didn't want to remain isolated until the Vytal Festival. I wanted to go outside and see the world that I'm supposed to be saving."

For a moment, silence reigned on the other end of the line.

_"Well, I can't say that I'm happy about your choice, but I do understand it."_ Doctor Polendina sighed. _"And judging from what I'm hearing, this doesn't sound like the end."_

"No. There is more." Penny acknowledged. "I have recently befriended a freshman student from Beacon Academy. His name is Jaune Arc. We've spent time together on several different occasions."

_"I see."_ Pietro sounded like he was doing something on his end. _"Jaune Arc, leader of Team JNPR, an interesting record."_

The anxiety that the girl had been feeling from the start was only on the rise. She didn't think her father was one to judge anyone harshly upon the first judgement. He was a kind soul and a true friend to people all around. However, he was also one of the most brilliant minds that Atlas had ever seen. He had to possess some pride in him and perhaps that pride extended to her as well.

"He's a really nice boy." Penny chimed in with her two cents. "We've talked a lot, gone places together, he's even introduced me to his teammates."

_"Hmm."_ Doctor Polendina thought for a moment. _"Judging by what I'm reading, it looks like he's a perfectly normal young man if not a bit reckless."_

"I don't know anything about his time at Beacon Academy." Penny didn't know about him as a huntsman in training, only the friend. "We haven't spoken much about it."

_"Well, it looks like I don't have to worry about your judgement in character."_ Pietro responded after a few more seconds. _"I think that this boy is a good lad, but do remember what you talk to him about."_

"I will." Penny nodded her head. "You can count on me, father."

_"And for now, we can keep this between us two. Looking at the data that your handlers have been sending me, it looks like your combat potential is still on the rise."_

"Roger that. I'll keep doing my best."

_"That's my girl. Well, I'd better let you go. It's getting late. Good night, Penny."_

"Good night!"

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

Jaune stared at the ceiling of Team JNPR's dorm room. Sleep wasn't coming to him tonight for whatever reason, so he chose to simply lay on his back and look up, thinking whatever thoughts came to mind.

The days in Beacon were passing by faster than he knew. His constant dedication to improving himself was both extremely taxing and extremely rewarding. It was so hard for him given his current level now, but each time he refined his sword technique, every time he answered a question right in class, and every time that he became a better leader, he felt an immense sense of pride and joy.

Once he was done patting himself on the back, he then thought back to his call with Penny. She must like him enough to want to call and talk. That was twice that she had initiated an interaction with him. Now he had to step up and be an initiator, otherwise he felt like he would lose the right to be called a man.

It would have to be sometime this weekend though. The rest of the week he was going to some additional lessons and taking some workshops relating to leadership training. As much talent as he did have being the head of his team, he would get better results by honing his talent to a fine point.

Jaune closed his eyes and the image of green eyes and orange hair came to the forefront. That cheerful smile which could probably make the Grimm turn, that boundless energy which was never affected by anything, her oddball quirks that made her stand out from many other people, and her continuous forward movement to learning.

Now all he had to do was get her to show him how she trained and maybe they could help each other grow as fighters. The only problem was that he had this image in his head that her fighting was an alien concept. She didn't look much like one and he certainly couldn't imagine how she would fight and with what weapons, if any, she fought with.

He turned on his side and shifted the covers atop of him in order to get more warmth. He felt a bit of soreness in his sides, a holdover from his intense training today. He would no doubt be feeling it more tomorrow morning once he woke up. He mentally groaned about that, then just accepted it and shifted again to find his most comfortable spot.

Jaune kept his eyes shut and focused on his breathing and again letting his mind wander. This time, he began to replay all of the best moments in X-Ray and Vav. He had all the issues and he could talk in depth about very specific moments. He really did like the series.

Sleep didn't take long to follow.

* * *

**Announcement time. Some of you already know, some of you do not. I'm enlisting to join the United States Army. For more details, read my profile page. This is the end of announcements.**

**This story is really testing my ability to write meaningful and carefully paced friendship and romance. One of the things about a good relationship between romantic partners is that they need more than just the romance. They need to be best friend if they're to get serious and all of that. Thus, I need to show lots of moments, big and small, that move the relationship along in a way that makes sense.**

**Thoughts? Reviews are always appreciated.**

**Thanks for reading and I hope you're all doing as well as possible.**

_**"Love is my religion - I could die for**_** it."**

**John Keats**


	5. TRAINING LIKE IT'S COOL

**CHAPTER 5: TRAINING LIKE IT'S COOL**

**Remnant**

** City of Vale**

** November 10th,**

** 80 Years After the Great War**

Normally, Jaune did no training on Sunday and if he did, he never did more than a light workout or some mild sparring with Pyrrha. He certainly hadn't been planning on any sort of training today, but there was a reason he was making an exception this time around and it was all because of him.

As the weakest freshman at Beacon Academy, the leader of Team JNPR was now constantly seeking new ways to improve himself. Whatever he could take he would embrace with open arms because as far as he was concerned, getting to the level of his peers took priority. He had already wasted more than enough time being a lone wolf. While Pyrrha had certainly been improving his technique and his finesse by leaps and bounds, he wanted to explore more avenues of combative evolution.

He remembered that Penny claimed to be able to fight and while he felt slightly dubious about that claim, he couldn't deny that he was curious to see if she was telling the truth. If he was being honest, her appearance didn't give off the impression that she was a fighter of any kind, much less a huntress in training. That being said, the first handshake they had ever exchanged indicated that she had some strength behind those limbs. Perhaps that was the reason he was willing to consider her as a training partner.

With nothing to do on Sunday, Jaune decided to see if his orange-haired companion would be willing to help him out. In hindsight, it seemed rude of him to think that she didn't have anything going on today. Usually, Sunday was reserved for relaxation or other private matters. For him to just casually ask her if he was willing and able to help him with his problem was a bit presumptuous, at least in his eyes. Surprisingly enough, she wasn't the least bit put off by his request to train. In fact, she was ecstatic about the prospect because apparently, any time spent with him was valuable to her, she said.

For the knight, that made him feel less guilty about having her come out today. He wondered if Penny was doing this out of a sense of obligation. She could've had plans of her own, but those thoughts were dashed when he saw her smile. For all of his concerns about today's circumstances, he couldn't possibly deny that charming expression. Instead, he dedicated his efforts to making sure that they both gained something from this experience.

Thankfully, finding a place to do some training wasn't all that hard. Since most people seemed to favor being indoors, there were plenty of open places to training with the local park. In favor of not being overly serious about this effort, Jaune opted not to bring his weapons or wear any armor. It would simply be a hand-to-hand training exercise because apparently, the girl with green eyes was good at that.

So here they were warming up before getting down to the business at hand, or at least he was. She merely waited for him to get ready. Both of them were dressed appropriately for a workout.

"Are you sure that you don't want to warm up?" Jaune asked her. "It's actually really good for you, especially if you're working your body physically."

"I assure you that it is alright." Penny nodded. "I am not likely to experience any negative side effects after this spar."

"Alright." Jaune decided to trust in her, continuing to warm up. "So, I don't know anything about unarmed combat, so you're going to have to lead me through this. How do you start?"

"A solid physical foundation and a thorough understanding of the fundamentals is critical." Penny explained. "Without both, it will be more difficult to advance."

"Got it." Jaune listened carefully while finishing up. "What do we start with today?"

"In order for me to properly assess the full extent of your strengths, we will need to test your physical capacity." Penny said. "I will need to work you to exhaustion."

"Okay." Jaune straightened his posture and turned to her. "What's that look like?"

"Well, in the spirit of my home, the Kingdom of Atlas, I believe a fitness test is in orders." Penny proudly declared. "We call it the Combat Fitness Test. There is one condition: aura is not permitted."

"Right." Jaune nodded. "I almost never use aura for any of my training."

"That is a good thing." Penny praised him. "Having a stronger physical baseline will improve your overall combat effectiveness."

"Yeah, so where do we start?" Jaune faced her. "This sounds like a multi-event thing?"

"We will begin with a two-mile run." Penny declared energetically. "Follow my lead and we should cover that distance exactly. I will also be timing us. A minimum passing score is twenty-one minutes."

While the leader of Team JNPR was locked in, he was mentally reeling. Running had always been one of his weakest points when it came to training. Anything related to cardiovascular endurance was hard for him. When it came to other physical stuff like calisthenics and the likes, he was fairly good at those. Regardless, he squared himself away and prepared to run. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Once they began the run, it was clear to Jaune that his current partner was far superior to him. She moved at exactly the same speed that he did, slightly ahead of him and she didn't look to be out of breath or otherwise exhausted while he was starting to breath out of his mouth heavily when they were barely at the one-mile mark. What he wouldn't give to have even a fraction of awesome genes that would let him run forever without so much as breaking a sweat. That, and she had a good running form.

Alas, he pushed through and kept going.

Strangely enough, he managed to complete the two miles much faster than he expected. He anticipated a time barely on the passing side. To his surprise, he had managed eighteen minutes despite his collapse to the ground, flat on his back, breathing heavily. Penny allowed him to rest for a little bit before they moved on.

Next up was a hand-release push up, something that Jaune had never really done before. If he was to do push ups, he would have done so the traditional way. If anything, his initial impression of a hand-release pushup was that it was going to be easy. Then he did them and as he progressed, it got harder and harder. He made a mental note never to underestimate anything that looked easy on the surface.

Once he was done with those, his arms all but gave out on him and he relished in the rest time. Penny reminded him that the rest periods were segmented in a way that afforded him adequate recovery time. Frankly, all he cared about was that he was getting a chance to recover at all.

Next up was a leg tuck, essentially suspending oneself from a bar and tucking the legs to the elbows. Again, easy in concept, hard in execution. Fortunately, Jaune was able to get through this one relatively quickly. To make up for a lack of a pullup bar, they substituted with a sturdy tree branch.

Instead of his back being the focus, now he was working heavily on his abdominal muscles. The burn was real here. Although brief, he managed eleven.

The rest of the exercises passed in somewhat of a blur. Starting off in a workout was always the toughest part, but once the ball was rolling, it was just a matter of keeping up that momentum because when all was said and done, there would be a good feeling to all of this.

Jaune could feel his shirt soaking with sweat and he could feel himself taking so many breaths. He really was working himself to the bone just trying to do this. Apparently, he still had a long way to go physically speaking, even if he was much better than he was when he first got to Beacon Academy.

His pride was somewhat damaged by the fact that when Penny did all of this stuff, she was breezing through it all, but then again, she probably wasn't a fraud unlike him. She actually appeared extremely competent. Again, what he wouldn't give for some genes that could help him get an edge.

There was also the fact that as her friend, Jaune didn't want to disappoint her. He really was worrying about her perception of him. Maybe this stemmed from his more selfish desire to make himself look as good as possible. He could reason that he was just trying to make friendship look awesome to Penny, but there was always that selfish desire in him.

He shook his head. One thing at a time. He just needed to get through this Combat Fitness Test and then he could worry more about the particulars of his friendship with Penny.

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

Penny knew that as a synthetic, she was capable of surpassing the limits that humans and faunus would be unable to even touch. To be the savior of the world, she had to be stronger than everyone else. Her occupation demanded as much.

With that said, she was always continually impressed by the limits and boundaries that huntsmen and huntresses constantly pushed. No doubt that at this time, there were warriors on Remnant who were her superior in combat. In fact, there could be an argument made that even with her intended purpose being to be the ultimate weapon for Mankind, there might just be a person strong enough to surpass her no matter what she did.

When put into this perspective, even she had her limits.

Penny pondered on these thoughts as she observed Jaune go through the test she had given him. In actuality, this was not something she had come up with on her own. She was merely copying the Atlesian Army's Combat Fitness Test. This was a standard that all soldiers serving had to pass in order to be qualified to serve. As her blonde friend was rapidly learning, all of the exercises were easy by themselves, but when done over a long period of time, they became exponentially more difficult.

But the leader of Team JNPR was showing amazing mental endurance by persisting through these challenges despite not performing the exercises properly, but she had a feeling that with a little more time, he would perfect them. Her initial evaluation of his physical condition was pretty spot-on. He was above average.

In the interest of staying engaged with Jaune, the ginger-haired girl did the exact same workout as he did, predictably with much better results. She noticed a glum appearance every time she outperformed him, but he never said a word about it. She didn't like the idea that he wasn't telling her about something that was hurting him, but she wouldn't force him to speak unless his life was at risk.

And so they continued with the exercise until they reached the end of the test and the boy stopped to take his final rest. He sat down on a nearby park bench, hunched over and breathing heavily. Despite his exhaustion, nothing appeared wrong with him physically speaking. After two minutes, she offered him a towel to dry off the sweat that had accumulated on his body. He accepted the gesture.

Penny watched his every move like she needed to do so. Even though he wasn't doing anything extraordinary, she regarded him with the same smile and the same attitude. He was her friend and she believed that it was important for friends to notice many details about him, big or small. This would show that she cared about him, that she was willing enough to take note of these things even when she wasn't necessarily obligated to do so.

The subject of her observation took no notice of her intense probing, only leveling out his breathing and drying himself out.

"That was a lot harder than I thought." Jaune finally said. "So, how'd I do? Good? Bad? Okay?"

"You were above average." Penny reported. "However brief your time at Beacon Academy, I believe this is what has helped you reach where you are now."

"I was hoping for better, but I'll take what I can get." Jaune quietly used his right hand to try and rearrange his hair. "But man, you're not even winded."

"I have been training for quite some time." Penny opted for an answer that hopefully sounded convincing. "I simply have more experience than you do."

"Yeah, you've got a point there." Jaune agreed with her. "Well, I hope that things get better from here."

"I believe that you will become far greater by the time the Vyal Festival comes around." Penny encouraged him. "I have nothing but faith in your abilities."

Jaune laughed momentarily. "Thanks."

One thing that the synthetic noticed about him was that he was content to talk about a lot of things, do a lot of things, but aside from the first time that they met, he appeared unable or unwilling to talk about what he felt inside. Then again, male biology and societal expectations might also be part of the reason. There was also a sense of pride added into that mix. Regardless, she wished he would open up more.

But that meant she needed to be more inviting and that was where she stumbled a bit. By her own nature, Penny knew every single thing there was to know about the military. Combat, strategies, tactics, classified information, a lot of things. Unfortunately, there was nothing in her programming that told her how to be a better friend. Therefore, she was having to make up her own line of reasoning with what she had.

Naturally, Penny's programming led her right back to her function as a weapon of mass destruction. That was what she knew best and that was what she could impart onto Jaune. It helped that his eagerness to learn as well as his requirements for Beacon Academy coincided with her intended function. She had worried that their atypical outing would leave much to be desired in his eyes, but the blonde had asked her first. That made this all the more easier for her.

The question was how long could she keep doing this with him. As much as she enjoyed spending time with him, training with him might be a bit much in terms of her obligations to the military. While she had not disclosed any sensitive information knowingly and willingly, she did have some concerns that her teaching him might bring trouble down upon herself and her father by extension. She could muster up the strength to deal with any sort of punishment, but Pietro Polendina was another story. She loved the man and she did not wish any harm to befall upon him. He had already given so much just to give her life.

But that was simply the nature of things. In the military, the mission always mattered more than anything else. Civilians might not understand that reality, but that was the universal reality for all service members of any armed force. It was not something that everyone relished, but it was respected and followed. This life wasn't for everyone; there was a reason why a vast majority of the world were non-combatants.

"Jaune, I have an unusual question for you." Penny wondered if maybe her friend could help her understand her fears. "Would you please listen?"

"Of course. Anytime." Jaune gave her his full attention. "Ask away."

"This is a strictly hypothetical question, mind you." Penny started off. "Imagine that you are in a combat situation that demands you make a choice. Say your team was at risk of losing their lives, but you also had a critical mission to complete that affects hundreds, maybe thousands of lives. What would you choose?"

"What would I do in a situation like that?" Jaune's eyes widened and he took a deep breath in and out. "Honestly, I've never thought about if I'll ever be in a situation like that, but maybe I should. I mean, I'm trying to become a huntsman."

Freelance huntsmen and huntresses were fortunate enough to be able to determine their own fates. Although they were licensed by the governments of the four kingdoms, they got to choose their jobs and all the risks and rewards that came with those jobs. The outcomes of each mission were determined solely by their preparations, their morals, and their overall skill in combat. Higher powers had much less of an influence.

"I ask because I may be expected to make a difficult choice in the future during my time with the Atlas Military." Penny explained her reason for asking the question. "I thought that obtaining another opinion on the matter could assist me."

"Ah, I get it." Jaune regarded her. "Well, it's a tough choice, that's for sure, but if I had to make a choice between my team and the mission, I would say my team."

Penny had her answer, but she needed more. "Why?"

"I don't know all that much about saving lives or saving the world, but I do know what my team is capable of." Jaune stared at the distant outline of Beacon Academy. "Being able to manage them is the most important job that I have. If I can't even take care of them, how can I expect to decide the fate of a hundred or a thousand strangers?"

"Then… you would choose your friends over everyone else?" Penny tried to clarify his words.

"I wouldn't word it like that." Jaune shook his head. "It's more like… I first need to make sure that Team JNPR is in working order. Once I know that my team can do their jobs, then I can focus on saving lives."

When he phrased it like that, she could make sense of his meaning.

Personal responsibility needed to be addressed first before helping others.

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

After a break of ten minutes, Jaune felt ready to take on a new challenge. To be more specific, he wanted to see what Penny was capable of in combat. Being as impatient as he was, he requested a spar from her.

Admittedly, he should have made this request at a different time. He knew nothing about what she could do and he had already drained a lot of his own energy doing her test, but his ambitious side demanded that challenge himself more. He reasoned to himself that the only way to get better was to keep pushing the limits. As long as he was injured seriously, anything at all was fair game so long as he got better.

The ginger-haired girl showed some initial reluctance to stress his body out too much, but after some persistence and some persuasion, he got her to agree. There were conditions, however. The spar would only last five minutes and aura wasn't allowed to be used aside from its passive ability to absorb damage. The time limit in particular was kind of a letdown, but he was the one asking her, so he respected her conditions.

When they got into position, Jaune immediately began to assess his opponent. In addition to the classes that he took with his team at Beacon Academy, he had to go through additional leadership courses as well as training. One thing that was emphasized heavily in leadership was to always be mindful of everything going on around him. Details mattered and depending on what he paid attention to, it could mean the difference between an excellent outcome or a horrible outcome. It all came down to his ability to figure out what mattered the most and what was just noise.

Immediately the Leader of Team JNPR took note of her stance. It looked like she knew something about unarmed combat. While it wasn't a style that Yang would favor, it certainly did have the markings of a more advanced technique. Being a close quarters combatant himself, he was especially aware of the smaller details like how her feet were placed, what side she favored, where her hands were, and how her body was positioned relative to the rest of her. If she was a high-level fighter, he was never going to beat her. The best that he could hope for was a stalemate.

Jaune also could see that Penny was analyzing him as well. Her eyes trained on him, looking him up and down until she was satisfied. Then she faced him and looked him square in the eye. He regarded her with a carefully controlled expression. He wasn't sure what conclusions she had drawn of his capabilities, but better to maintain control rather than show anything that might give away his internal workings.

He was the first to make a move. He began with a more cautious and probing approach. Although he was not an unarmed combatant, he did know a thing or two about grappling. Whenever he saw Yang fight, he took note of some techniques that he found to be useful and cool, but until right now, he had never actually used any of them in a spar or live combat. The fact that he could even remember and implement them was kind of amazing.

His first fist was a right hook, which she dodged with ease. When he sensed that she was moving to his left, he immediately backed off when she sent a kick meant for his abdomen. He miscalculated his retreat and lost his footing, falling to the ground. She immediately followed up by kneeling down to punch him. He grabbed her bawled hand, wrestling with her for maybe two seconds before tearing her away from himself.

Jaune got back up and regained some distance between himself and Penny. That brief encounter was enough for him to get an idea about what to expect next. Making the first move didn't work in his favor, but he knew now not to be so hasty in his attacks. She was likely to capitalize on his inexperience in this arena.

Her recovery time was quick and she moved to attack him. She began with a series of jabs, which he blocked using his arms, trying to keep as few exposed spots away from her as possible. His defenses didn't last for long as he neglected to watch what her legs were doing and she delivered a roundhouse kick, of all things, to his side. That was enough to stagger him and he had no time to react as she delivered another punch, this one connecting.

Aura was a great tool, but that didn't change the fact that the impact hurt like hell and he fell onto his side. The pain was temporary and he instinctively rolled to his right. The one rule of combat was to always remain mobile even in a disadvantageous position. Staying in one place for an extended period of time was a death sentence. Jaune could see out of the corner of his eyes as her foot came down to try and hit him. Rising to his feet, he went in.

Penny narrowly avoided his next strike and casually stuck at the back of his head as he sailed by her. He was able to save himself from falling again, but the distraction was enough for her to tackle him to the ground. His attempts at trying to wrestle free from her grasp were stopped before they could even begin. Each of his limbs were pinned firmly to the ground. For a girl of her size, being this strong was unusual. It was like her grip was made of steel. She might even be comparable to Yang in that regard.

As much as he wished that he could fight back, there was no point. He was way out of his league and it wasn't even two minutes into their spar. His pride was feeling more than a little wounded, but what else was new?

"I yield." Jaune's muffled voice sounded.

"I have won!" Penny seemed happy with her victory.

"I'm glad that you're excited." Jaune tilted his head so that he could speak more clearly. "Man, the ground does not taste good."

He spit out a blade of grass that had gotten into his mouth. As much as he loved the ground that he walked on, he didn't love it enough to get down on his knees and kiss it. Yes, he preferred the earth as compared to the sky, but not like this.

"I'm sorry, Jaune." Penny noticed him below. "I was merely trying to make sure that you were subdued."

"I'm not THAT strong, Penny." Jaune commented from his embarrassing position below. "Look, watch."

In an attempt to show his training partner just how much room he had for improvement, the intent was to try and get himself up off the ground, only to struggle and then fall right back to the ground. That was what he had imagined would happen when he tried to lift himself up. What happened instead was that he found himself getting into a ready position for a pushup with Penny now relying on his entire body for support.

"You are strong enough to carry me on your back, Jaune!" Penny cheered him on. "You are not weak!"

"Okay, this is weird." Jaune struggled to keep himself straight. "I didn't know that I could do this."

And apparently, he couldn't do it for very long. Due to his physical exhaustion, his arms and legs couldn't support himself and the ginger above him. However, because his left arm gave out before his right arm, he rolled to his side mid-air, then landed on his back. The air in his lungs was knocked out upon impact. Then he felt his chest supporting weight and that hurt too. Now he was doubly winded.

"Ow." Jaune weakly uttered.

Penny gasped. "I am so sorry, Jaune!"

"No, it's fine." Jaune gathered his breath. "I'm just a little out of it."

It wasn't until he opened his eyes did he realize what had happened. Now that he was facing upward, she was now straddling him. One arm and one leg were on either side of him and if there was a vertical axis, their heads would be level with each other.

The first reaction that seemed expected was embarrassment. This position wasn't exactly appropriate for the park. It made them look like they were a couple or that they were about to do something really hot and steamy. Those were the thoughts that initially invaded the blond boy's mind, but not for long.

Looking up into Penny's eyes, he could see very clearly and very resolutely. They were very green and very clear, but he couldn't help seeing something else within those orbs that captured his fancy. Likewise, the girl regarded Jaune carefully, never breaking eye contact. It was like a staring contest except neither of them saw it like that.

But there was something to this, something much more.

That much he did know.

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

Penny had seen Jaune's blue eyes before, but being so close to him, she could see them even better, in more crisp detail. She had once heard from her father that a person's eyes told a story about them. Supposedly, the eyes were a gateway into the reality of who a person was. The synthetic wasn't sure she understood completely, but she did know one thing at that moment.

His sapphire blue eyes were the most stunning shade of blue that she had ever had the privilege of witnessing. Although the emotions she felt weren't the same as a human or faunus felt them, she felt strangely calmed by them yet also energized at the same time. They provided assurance, but they had determination within them.

Maybe her own interpretation of him was wrong, but she didn't think Jaune was the type to lie about anything be it who he was or what he did. His profile indicated as much as did her interactions with him. He was earnest and he was caring.

Penny leaned in closer to inspect him. She felt compelled to look at him closer, to see him in greater detail.

"Look at that." A nearby voice, female, spoke with laughter. "Right out in public."

"Kids these days." Another female voice spoke. "They have no shame."

Once the reality of their position came back to them, they both became very conscious of each other. Blushes adorned their faces as the girl suddenly stood up and took two steps back, followed by the boy quickly leaping to his feet.

"So yeah… good match." Jaune turned his head to the right.

"Yes!" Penny's pitch went up. "I enjoyed our time together."

It was awkward for a moment, but she didn't know what else to say to him. Such close physical contact was something reserved for those that were romantically involved, or so her knowledge told her, but there was also the matter of how the two people involved chose to interpret the physical interaction.

"In all seriousness, thanks." She could see Jaune out of the corner of her eyes as he smiled somewhat stiffly. "I really appreciate what you did for me today."

"N-no, it was my pleasure." Penny said. "I did this because I wanted to help you."

"Then I'll thank you again." Jaune laughed. "You're a really good friend."

"T-thank you." Penny nodded. "You are as well."

She didn't know much about friendships. She didn't know much about her friend. She didn't know much about anything that was going on right now. She would willingly admit that much, but for all of the things that she didn't know, that was just one more way that she could discover new things about all of them.

And if each new discovery came with it such joy, then she wanted to keep learning and experiencing.

* * *

**I will admit that writing a story purely about fluff is much harder than I realized. I've learned from my story One-Night Brand that introducing drama can either make or break a story and admittedly, I handled it poorly in many ways. Hence, I will do keep this story consistently about the feel-good theme.**

**It's also about trying to create a meaningful but also realistic relationship between Jaune and Penny. The chemistry that they have will determine the outcome of their relationship and everything else that follows. If I don't do them justice, then this entire story won't even have meaning.**

**On a side note, because I will be leaving for Basic Training for the US Army in August, expect two more chapters to be released within the next two months.**

**Thoughts? Feedback and reviews are appreciated.**

**Thanks for reading.**


	6. FIRE ON THE DANCE FLOOR

**CHAPTER 6: FIRE ON THE DANCE FLOOR**

**Remnant**

** City of Vale**

** November 15th,**

** 80 Years After the Great War**

Penny was finding it harder to remain in one place in recent days. The amount of time that she was allowed to go outside was simply not enough for her. She wanted to get out everyday and see as much as possible. For all the things that she did know about the world, there were a million more things that she remained unaware of. It only made sense that she would want to find out as much as possible about Remnant. She was to become its protector and savior one day. In order to best serve that purpose, she needed to understand as many facets of life as possible.

But there had been very clear lines set by General Ironwood in terms of when she could go out and for how long. She could only go out during the day and before she did so, her mandatory training and reports were required as well as her various other duties that she needed to attend to. For a normal person, it would have been a considerable workload, but not for the synthetic girl.

Penny could finish all of these things by noon time everyday before she went off to do her own thing, but she anticipated a considerable increase in her duties once she was formally introduced and put to work. That would be when her freedoms would become almost non-existent. That was why she had to get out and do as much as possible and meet as many people as was feasibly possible.

That's the reason why she chose to disregard the rules and regulations set by the people around her. Even if she were to get caught in the act and scolded for it, it wasn't as if they could do away with her and replace her. She was an extremely valuable piece of equipment worth millions of lien. She was intended for an important purpose and there was a written contract that detailed all of these, and people in Atlas took contracts seriously.

Penny considered that maybe her attitude towards all of this was very flippant, but now that she had gotten a taste of what life was like outside of her usual confines, she wasn't about to go quietly into the night without experiencing as much as possible. That said, the amount of activities to do at any given time were still quite staggering, hence why she felt it best not to do these things alone. She was somewhat afraid of messing up herself.

Hence, she enlisted the help of Jaune Arc, her best friend, to assist her with navigating through the list of things that she could do. Thankfully, he had been able and willing to help on this fine day. Even though the sun was dipping into the horizon, they had some time before he had to return to Beacon Academy.

Out of all the things that she had listed off doing, he suggested that they try their hand at dancing. Apparently, he had a hidden skill with dancing and it was something that he could teach her. It all sounded amazing.

"So where are we going? Penny asked as they walked the streets. "I've never visited this section of the city."

"It's a fairly popular clubbing spot." Jaune said to her. "It's got good reviews and from what I hear, it's fairly busy. It's as good a place as any to start."

"Are you sure that I can do this?" Penny felt herself get a little antsy. "I've never done anything like this before."

"Doesn't everyone start out like that?" Jaune didn't sound concerned. "Look, I'll help you. I've been doing this for years. Plus, you've got less to worry about considering that you're in good shape. All you need to do is get into the groove. Don't worry about being a master dancer."

"If you say so." Penny had to trust in him as the more experienced dancer. "So how do we begin?"

"Well, to be honest, if we're going to do this right, it would probably be better if we had a one-on-one lesson." Jaune scratched the back of his head with a sheepish expression. "But since we're already here, I can at least get to feel the vibe when songs come on."

The sound of booming music came to her audio receptors and with each step taken forward, the sound increased. From the sounds of it, it was the type of music that was labelled as pop music, a genre broadly defined as the most listened-to songs in the present time. Pop music took many different forms over time. This decade, the defining traits of popular music were all-electronic compositions for the most part.

The entrance was watched over by a single guard. He quickly surveyed them and asked them for identification. Once they displayed the necessary item, he ushered them inside without another word.

It was bright and dark at the same time. The lighting all around was wildly inconsistent. One moment, she could see everything in detail and the next it was shrouded in darkness. The colors were changing, the angles were shifting, and nothing was staying still. It was quite a lot of sensory information for her to take in. For a split second, the sheer amount of information that she was processing was a startling, but she took it in carefully and eventually found herself figuring out everything just fine.

There was quite a crowd gathered here with the occasional individuals dotting around the outer edges towards a bar area along with some areas with seating. With the changing color of the lights, she had to adjust her own eyes in order to filter out any distortions in order to see things for what they truly were.

As she did this, she spotted two girls that looked identical in facial features and overall body shape. One was dressed in a white dress while the other was in a red dress. The two of them regarded her with narrowed eyes. The synthetic felt her systems go on alert. Although she didn't wish to fight, she was ready to shift into combat at a moment's notice. Still, in order to de-escalate any potential hostilities, she offered a stiff wave and a smile. The twin girls gave her an unimpressed look before looking away.

That served to ease the tension within her frame.

"It looks like this song's going to end in a minute." Jaune spoke louder in order to be heard over the music. "Let's find a more open place."

"Okay." Penny nodded her head a few times.

The girl with green eyes gazed around her to witness so many people dancing. She wasn't sure what constituted good or bad. Many seemed to be merely performing simple movements that could be done by anyone even without practice. That being the case, then these were most likely the basic moves. It made her wonder just what sort of dancing maneuvers could her friend pull off.

The music stopped and the crowd cheered a little bit. There was a voice over the loudspeaker, a man who appeared to be sizing up the mood of the crowd before cheering them on into the next song.

It was a fast beat with a few instrumentals accompanying it. Because she was largely uninformed about who was who in music, she just listened.

"No time like the present." Jaune tugged on her sleeve. "C'mon! I'll show you how it's done. Step back and watch the master go to work!"

With a confidence that the ginger-haired girl had never seen before, the blonde boy stepped onto the dancefloor with absolutely no signs of reservation or fear in his body or on his face. If anything, he appeared very happy, very excited.

Not ten seconds later, he began to move almost as if he had been planning to do so a long time ago.

What she saw from him she couldn't even begin to describe because she didn't even know the first thing about what he was doing. She didn't know the technicalities, the names of specific moves, nor could she pinpoint what type of dancing he was engaging in. All she knew was that he was doing a lot and it impressed her.

His moves ranged from fluid to staccato, sudden to slow, subtle to overt, the range she was incredible. Every part of his body was engaged in the dance. He didn't stop once, appearing neither winded nor exhausted. His face was that of joviality as he moved to the beat, never breaking a sweat. Clearly, he had under-exaggerated his skill in this department.

Actually now that she was seeing this, Penny came upon another idea. The more that he showed his ability to dance, the more she realized that perhaps he was more physically prepared for training as a huntsman than she originally had anticipated. Although combat and dancing were two entirely different applications of physicality, there could possibly be some interchangeable aspects.

_Another time._ Penny reminded herself. _Enjoy this moment._

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

Jaune had never considered himself to be a person with vanity issues, not in regards to what he was doing with his life right now. He had to fight for every inch of ground when it came to his current life. Since he was starting almost from rock bottom, it all fell to him to perform under pressure. It might not seem that way to anyone viewing his life from an outside perspective, but that's how it was. Because of his overall incompetence as a aspiring huntsman, he couldn't afford to be reckless, stupid, or prideful. Those three things had nearly cost him before.

But if there was one thing that he could take pride in, it was his ability to dance. It had been a skill he had first learned almost a decade ago. He never would have thought to learn it of his own initiative as with many of the skills he did possess. Most of them were the result of his sister badgering him to do so. Still, even if he didn't start off wanting to learn the skills, he stuck with them and now his efforts were paying off. He could also say that he was hard to beat in this arena. Now he did enjoy them.

Another part of the team leader felt the need to show off to Penny. She wanted to see the world with her own two eyes. She didn't know that much about the world and she wanted him to show her things. Naturally, he wished to give her the best impression possible of both himself and what normal life had to offer, hence why he thought that dancing might be one good outlet for both his own pride and for her own personal growth. As long as the second objective was in mind, less shame was felt regarding the first one.

But Jaune wasn't about to slack off when it came to dancing. Even without the need to impress his newest friend, there was always a sort of seriousness that carried over to all things he did, especially to skills that he knew well; dancing was no exception. Every movement he made was intentional. It moved to the beat, followed along with the lyrics, enhanced the meaning of the song, projected an image around himself, his movements did at least one of these things or many of them at once.

Although he had fully immersed himself into his dancing, his eyes could pick up people all around him looking at him and cheering him on. That filled him with both joy and dread, the joy being that he was performing well, the dread being that to fail now would be to make a fool of himself. These two sides of a coin served only to further fuel his motivation to see this song to the end.

How long was this song again?

He heard the beat begin to speed up. Now felt like a good time to start executing some more advanced moves. He knew a few that would definitely get a reaction from the forming crowd. He quickly ran through a list through his head and decided on one. His next move with be a Suicide Move.

Jaune began the move known as the shustry, an incredibly difficult move that had taken him months of constant practice and dedication to perfect. It required proper coordination between all parts of the body. Although more emphasis was put on the arms and back, his lower body needed to be positioned and work accordingly in order to maintain balance.

He saw the world all around him spinning too fast for his eyes to process, but his ears were picking up plenty of things like the cheers and shouts he was receiving. It was clearly working because it only seemed to get louder, but the noise was a distraction to him. He was still concentrating.

It didn't take all that long to get through it. Maybe ten seconds ticked away and once he was done, he proceeded. Following a high-octane move, he downgraded to one of the most basic moves: top rock. Moving from highs to lows would ensure that this would not get boring fast. It kept people guessing what was to come next.

Shuffling left and right, back and forth, a backspring, three flips, then a return to the Top Rock. A few hoots and hollers. Next up, a transitional move before he went into another power move.

Jaune shifted into the Coffee Grinder. With much of his body touching the floor, the entire premise of this move along with other Floor Rocks was to display how even when making contact with the ground, even cool and stylish moves could be done. It was all a matter of making use of a seemingly limited position.

The attention was on him, yet he still did his thing, keeping track of himself while listening to the beat that had decelerated, then levelled out. If he had to guess, it would soon be cranked up again. Once it did, that was his cue to go wild again.

Just as he finished up with his Floor Rock, the music halted for a moment, a disc scratch following before the silence. It seemed like a rather inopportune time to just stop everything. The blonde found the DJ, who seemed to meet his eyes.

So the man behind the jams was indeed keeping his eyes on him. The team leader supposed that he should feel even better about himself. He must've attracted a bigger crowd than he had realized. That wasn't his intention from the start. It had just been about himself and Penny.

Speaking of which, where was that girl?

He had no time to search for her as he felt the beat again and he moved to his next Power Move.

Soon, he started to see blurs everywhere as he just kept moving. The thin trails of sweat were soaking into his shirt, causing it to cling to his body. Apparently, this only served to further energize the crowd, particularly of the female variety, but if he knew that, he might lose focus and mess up.

Jaune couldn't recall the last time he had this much fun. The past two months at Beacon had been rough on him. Despite adapting to the rigorous schedule set before him, he wasn't sure if he would ever be as acclimated as his peers were. Although he had time to himself, cutting loose like this was something that he had never done since he first came to Beacon Academy. It felt kind of good to not care about unleashing insane amounts of energy.

Every so often, as he moved to the beat, he could swear that he saw a lock of carrot-orange hair, but his head was doing so much spinning internally and externally that it could just be his eyes playing tricks on him. If he was losing his mind, then his entire body had all but entered into a trance, which seemed kind of ludicrous now that the thought was in his mind.

His mind was still entering inside and outside the physical world, a sort of psychedelic drug trip and he had never done drugs in his entire life.

Jaune heard what sounded like an end to the music. That was his cue to finish his final move, positioning himself into a stance that had maximum flair, an image for everyone to burn into their minds. Some sparks went off on the edges of the dance floor?

Did someone install some fireworks in this place?

Wasn't that incredibly dangerous?

Or were they just for flair?

The blonde boy stood up to his full height, letting his eyes steady and reorient the visuals. He pushed the bangs that were in his eyesight. There were trace bits of sweat running down his face, but a quick swipe of his arm across his brow took care of most of that.

His ears were ringing a little bit. Maybe the music was louder than he realized. Or it could be the dozens of people all around him giving him a resounding applause.

Sensory overload all around him.

Jaune composed himself enough to give a smile to his admirers and did a light bow. As he looked all around, he finally spotted the girl that mattered most right now. He swiftly made his way to her.

"You are spectacular!" Penny was absolutely floored.

"Thanks." Jaune received her compliment, his breath ragged. "I haven't danced like that in a while."

"Will you be okay?" Penny gently grasped his arm. "Is there anything you need?"

"Well, now that you mention it, I'm kind of thirsty." Jaune realized how dry his throat was. "The bar should have something."

"I will lead the way!" Penny spoke resolutely. "This way!"

` Jaune looked a bit taken aback. "Penny, I can-"

She didn't hear him as she grasped his hand with her own and led him through the crowd to the bar. Everyone around him was whistling and shouting at him. It didn't take him long to realize what they were interpreting.

Oh brother.

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

There was no point in ordering a drink for herself. Penny had no need for anything like that due to her being synthetic, but since Jaune offered and she possessed the ability to process drinks like a normal person would, she did so.

Huntsmen were granted certain privileges due to their occupation and that, in turn, extended to the students of the huntsmen academies as well. They could go places no normal student could, do things no normal student could, and take part in activities no normal student could. This place was one such instance of that privilege applying.

By extension, those exceptions applied to herself despite her being a foreign entity while visiting Vale. This was in no way an important fact. It just matched up to what she was currently doing.

Penny held her cup by both hands and nearby, she saw Jaune leaning on the bar with one hand against the counter and the other holding his cup. For the most part, his gaze remained on the dance floor. He looked to be observing everyone, his eyes never staying in one place for more than a few seconds. What was he looking for, she wondered. Maybe he was trying to find another person who could be his equal. If there was such a person, a confrontation between two such skilled individuals would be most interesting to watch.

But the amount of energy expended from those movesets and the constant performing of them must have taken a sizable chunk of the blonde's energy, especially considering that much of what he was doing involved high-intensity maneuvers. However, considering that he didn't look very winded or otherwise exhausted beyond measure, perhaps he had the strength to do that again.

The ginger-haired girl felt herself shrink a little into herself. Inadequacy was never a feeling that had experienced up until now. As a synthetic, she was built to push far beyond the limits of what any normal person could do. Even without aura, she would still be able to handily defeat Grimm as well as any other threats of human or faunus nature, but when it came to more simple things like this, she still lacked the proper understanding.

Yes, Penny could process information faster, mimic perfectly, and eventually outperform anyone, but it wouldn't be the same as someone who had taught her. People spent years of their lives dedicated to a single skill or path in life. Sometimes, they succeeded and went on to become wealthy or famous. Others failed and gave up to find someone else worth investing their time and efforts in.

Just another thing that reminded her that no matter how hard she tried to be a normal girl, she would never be one. Her inhuman rate of learning would eventually alienate her from everyone else.

Including her friend.

She really didn't want to think about the day that she would never be able to see her first friend, but her time here wasn't infinite. After the Vytal Festival, she would return to Atlas and assume her duties immediately.

"Penny." Jaune's voice interrupted her thoughts. "You okay?"

"Y-yes!" Penny responded. "I'm perfectly well!"

She hiccuped and promptly covered her mouth with the cup she held in both hands. She should've minded what she said. Now she made herself look foolish in front of him.

"You sure?" Jaune gave her a contemplative look. "You look kind of out of it or something."

"My physical and mental well-being are both splendid!" Penny tried to diffuse his concern. "There is nothing wrong with me!"

She hiccuped again.

"I drink really fast!" Penny placed the straw in her drink up to her mouth.

Even as she drank, she hiccuped again.

"Well, you should slow down then." Jaune spoke with a raised eyebrow. "No sense in making it worse."

"I agree!" Penny shouted, closing her eyes shut.

She looked absolutely ridiculous right now. She wished that a hole in the ground would swallow her up and take her embarrassment and shame with her. Thankfully, the hiccups were gone now that she had managed to get past the lying of the conversation, but that felt like only a small silver lining.

"Penny it's okay." Jaune began laughing. "You don't need to duck your head."

Before she opened her eyes, she felt a hand against her head. Then she felt the sensation of that hand gently rubbing her hair. The experience wasn't unpleasant and because of the softness that he spoke, she slowly lowered the drink down to her chest and opened her eyes to look at him.

"That's it." Jaune gave her a smile. "Now how about you show me that smile."

He apparently hadn't caught on to how her hiccups were connected to her lying. Either that or he simply ignored it in favor of getting her to open up. Either way, she felt eternally relieved that she didn't have to explain herself at this time. Another time, she would ask him about how she could help improve their friendship.

For now, the petting of her head and his gentle assurance was enough.

"Hmmm." Penny hummed as she smiled in contentment.

"I take it you're feeling better." Jaune placed his hand back at his side.

"I am." Penny was slightly disappointed that the petting ceased. "Thank you, Jaune. I was just admiring you."

"Me?" Jaune looked surprised by this statement. "Why?"

"The way you spoke of your ability to dance made it sound as if you were only decent." Penny elaborated on her line of thinking. "But what you displayed was nothing short of amazing! I don't even know where to begin!"

"Ah." Jaune looked away from her, laughing a bit. "Well, you know, when you have fun with something, you usually get really good results."

He was clearly downplaying his skill. Truly, he had a mastery of dancing in a way that she most certainly didn't. Humble didn't even begin to describe him.

"Why do you speak so little about yourself?" Penny didn't understand it. "Why not take pride in something that you are highly competent at?"

"I don't make it a habit to publicize my skills, you know?" Jaune gave her a more neutral look. "I'm not a showoff. If I can do something, I just do it. If people call it cool or compliment me, I just take their compliments. I don't know, that's how I am. Really, as much as I like doing all kinds of things, I'm more of an introvert than an extrovert. I can do okay in a crowd, but I'm no social butterfly."

When he said these things, she honestly found them hard to believe. From what she had witnessed of him over their time as friends, he didn't appear to be lacking socially, but perhaps her perception of him was so positive in light of her severely lacking social skills. Regardless, the way he described himself didn't sit well with her.

"We've got a little time before I need to get back." Jaune looked at his scroll. "I've got something else I want to show you."

"Huh?" Penny looked him in the eye. "What is it?"

"Well, if you want to dance, I'd like to show you, but this isn't the place to do it." Jaune gestured around them. "Too many people. You need a lot of space and some peace and quiet to really get into learning how to dance."

"You would do that for me?" Penny wasn't sure if he would remember. "Really?"

"Of course. I did promise you, didn't I?" Jaune finished his drink, placed the empty cup on the counter and shelled some lien before meeting her eyes. "What kind of friend would I be if I didn't do as I promised?"

The team leader made a beeline for the exit and the synthetic didn't hesitate to follow him. They passed by a few people who remembered their faces and were flashing them thumbs-up and other positive, friendly signs. All she could was wave nervously to everyone who saw them.

The sun had already set and the moon was in the sky, shining brightly, it's scattered pieces visible for all to see. The air was cool to the touch, not quite winter, but not quite summer either. This was mild, the calm before the cold winter. Vale was situated in a location that features a temperate climate, four seasons, each roughly the same length. It was now autumn and it was showing.

Jaune led her away from the industrial sector of the City of Vale into the suburban area. It looked like he knew where to go because he didn't consult his scroll nor ask for directions. He just led her to where he wished to go.

They eventually found themselves in the middle of a public park. There was no one around, just the two of them.

"We can dance here?" Penny inquired.

"It's the only quiet place that I could think of." Jaune shrugged his shoulders. "But if you're not ready, I can-"

"No, I want to do this!" Penny forcefully cut him off. "I mean, please teach me!"

"Alright." Jaune nodded his head. "Then let's get to it."

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

Because they had limited time, he decided to do away with the basics and move on to something a little more advanced. He trusted in her ability to follow along and learn quickly. In fact, he was counting on it.

In order to get them both into the mood, he had some music play. He randomly selected a music station and by chance, he got a classical music station. He cranked up the volume on his scroll, set it to the side, and began to instruct his dance partner.

He told her to follow his instructions and his lead, which she did with everything she had. At first, her head was focused solely on her footing so she didn't accidentally misstep. It didn't take her long to get into the groove. Plus, this wasn't a fast pace to begin with. It was extremely leisurely compared to the breakdancing that he had been doing earlier. It was also very soothing and calming. The sound of a slow beat and a soft, but crisp melody flowing through them both as they moved.

Because he was more experienced and practiced, he was afforded the opportunity to observe her as she slowly began to get the hang of it and soon, her brilliant green eyes met his sapphire blue ones.

"I didn't doubt you for a moment." He displayed a small grin. "Also, this is my way of repaying you. You're training me to fight, so I'm training you to do something that people will like."

Her eyes widened slightly at his proclamation, then her expression blossomed into a beautiful smile. Her grip on him tightened and moved her body closer to his own. She did this while keeping in time with the dance.

"Will you… teach me more things?" She retained her face of elation, but he could detect a hint of apprehension in her voice. "I want to know more about… being normal."

Such a request, under any other circumstances would sound highly unusual, even suspicious to a few people, but in light of his knowledge of her unique situation and circumstances, he mustered up all the seriousness he possessed and held her eyes with his own, nodding resolutely.

She saw this and her eyes seemed to sparkle with all the excitement that she was no doubt holding back in favor of keeping to their current routine.

And so the next minute passed by in relative quiet with only the sound of the music coming through scroll speakers, which were decent at best, but it was more than enough for the two of them.

The girl with ginger hair looked up at her blonde friend. Seeing him made her feel all sorts of things. Being close to him intensified these feelings by many magnitudes. While she had no idea what to call these feelings, she knew that she liked them.

But more importantly, she wanted to see if these feelings could grow any more.

So it was with a split-second decision that she took a chance.

She gently placed her head against his chest, with her right ear pressing into him.

In response to her unexpected physical contact, his heart rate increased, yet he still managed to maintain control as they moved in sync.

He didn't say anything.

Neither did she.

They closed their eyes.

* * *

**Alright, on a scale of dead to heart attack, how well did I do in terms of being sappy? Are you all sufficiently happy that I'm staying away from the drama and letting the gold old feels in?**

**I'll admit that while I did enjoy being somewhat sickly romantic, I didn't want to overdo it, but I can't say that I'm sorry for doing it. It just came to me. Rewatching some old movies and TV shows gave me some partial inspiration as well.**

**Thoughts? Reviews and feedback and always appreciated.**

**Thanks for reading and I hope you're all doing the best that you can in these turbulent times.**

_**"Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul."**_

**St. Augustine**


	7. LET'S NOT GO THERE

**CHAPTER 7: LET'S NOT GO THERE**

**Remnant**

**City of Vale**

**November 20th,**

**80 Years After the Great War**

Jaune couldn't say that he understood much about girls. Considering that most of the people he knew at Beacon Academy were girls and considering that his own partner was a girl, that was saying something.

After his last event with Penny, he was beginning to express doubt as to whether or not he was the right person for the job of teaching her about the world in general. He kind of assumed that when it came to teaching about ordinary things, that job was reserved for parents, but then he had to remember that his orange-haired friend had only one parent, and said parent seemed a little too overprotective for his own good.

The leader of Team JNPR found himself at a crossroad of sorts. He had all sorts of ideas as to how he was going to get his curious friend up to speed on all things related to a normal life, which was exactly the problem. His idea of normal was just that, his own idea. He didn't know whether or not what he did necessarily reflected the sort of things that she liked or not. He considered himself lucky that so far, she hadn't issued a single complaint, but that could be on account of her newness to friendship.

Jaune had to think about this a little more rationally. Any problem could be solved if he kept his cool and used his head. Maybe the key to solving all of this was thinking about it less like a problem and more like an opportunity. After all, Penny wasn't the only one benefitting from the friendship. He too had a lot of fun being with the girl as well. It also gave him an opportunity to practice being a little more social.

_It's just nerves._ Jaune calmed his chaotic thoughts._ Calm down, take a deep breath, and just work through the problem._

His thoughts were swarming with ways of letting Penny experience the ways of normal life. He couldn't help but dwell on her request; that night, as the two of them danced simply, it was hard not to hear her request and not see the honesty behind the request. To turn it down would be like kicking a puppy: impossible. Her ears were full of hope and anticipation and maybe a bit of fear, if he saw things correctly.

But now that the heat of the moment was gone, thinking about what he was going to next made anxious. Only now did he realize the undertaking that he had willingly undertaken. While learning how to be "normal" might seem a simple thing to everyone, it really wasn't. What one person might consider normal might be unusual for another. Furthermore, normality in society shifted and changed with the times. Basically, being normal was practically the same thing as trying to forge a lifestyle.

But it was far too late to go back on his word. Plus, as her first friend, he really didn't want to be the first one to break her heart. Gods, he hoped nobody broke her heart.

"Jaune." That was Ren's voice calling to him. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah." Jaune snapped out of his thoughts in order to answer his fellow teammate. "I was just doing some thinking about… things."

"As most people do." Ren commented plainly. "What about?"

"Well… just some private stuff." Jaune wasn't comfortable with talking about this to his team. "Nothing that's going to affect the team."

He did promise that there would be no more secrets from his team. Whether or not this constituted as such a thing was debatable. While this was certainly an unrelated matter regarding Team JNPR and their overall dynamic, it was something that related to him personally. Pyrrha had made a point of letting the blonde know that should he need to, they would all be willing to lend an ear to his troubles. While it was flattering that they would all help him should he call, he still felt a slight desire to help himself first.

So maybe telling them all right off the bat wasn't going to do for him, but maybe he could get some hints from the only other guy that he knew well enough at Beacon Academy. He didn't stand to lose much. Plus, the guy with magenta eyes was the type that could keep a secret if asked to.

"Actually, I want to ask you something, Ren." Jaune gathered his thoughts before speaking. "How long have you and Nora been together? Like, how long have you known each other."

"Ten years at least." Ren replied almost without pause between them. "We're basically childhood friends. We've been through pretty much everything together."

"Ah, okay." Jaune now had an idea of what he was working with. "So… if you don't mind me asking, what were you two doing before coming to the academy?"

"What everyone else does. Sleep, eat, train, have fun, all of that stuff." Ren shrugged his shoulders. "It was just the two of us watching each other's backs, so where one of us went, the other followed."

"I see." Jaune said, detecting a sensitive topic and carefully maneuvering around it. "What is something you two did often?"

"Well, eat pancakes, as you've seen many times." Ren chuckled quietly. "I'm not quite sure how that came up. It just did one day."

"Mhm." Jaune nodded his head. "What else?"

"Um, fighting Grimm." Ren listed off another activity. "Nora discovered really quickly that she like breaking their legs."

"Right." Jaune laughed awkwardly. "That's… interesting. What else?"

"Well, anything that's spontaneous." Ren eyed him with a curious look. "You know how she is."

"Yeah." Jaune nodded his head, not quite satisfied.

"What is this about, Jaune?" Ren finally asked his own question. "I get the feeling that you're asking for more than just idle curiosity."

Lying to his black-haired friend was probably not going to end well. The boy had an eye for detail and contrary to popular belief, he was always aware of his surroundings, including what people talked about and did.

"So, how do I put this?" Jaune pressed his lips together. "You know how I introduced you guys to Penny?"  
"I do." Ren replied. "What about her?"

"Long story short, she's got an overprotective dad and she wants to get out more and see the world." Jaune tried to sum it all up. "And man, is she clueless. She gets so excited about the most simple things. The last time we saw each other, she was asking me if I could show her all of the things that normal people do. I said yes because I don't know how to say no. Now I'm kind of stuck."

"I see." Ren gave it some thought before he continued. "You're trying to get some input as to how to carry out your promise."

"Yeah, that!" Jaune lit up. "I was hoping to get some ideas. As normal as I am, I don't have THAT many hobbies and interests."

"I think you're a bit too tense about this." Ren had a small smile on his face. "From what I can see, Penny isn't the sort of person to reject anything new. She seems like the sort to do anything new regardless of whether or not it interests her."

"What makes you say that?" Jaune leaned in.

"Because that's more or less how Nora acts." Ren explained. "And both Penny and Nora really hit it off when they met. I think they're similar enough that you can use Nora as a reference. You work well enough with her."

Combining Ren's advice with his memories of the first meeting of Nora nad Penny, Jaune could formulate a picture. Based on what he could recall in detail, he didn't recall a single instance that was a cause for concern regarding the two girls. They just got along and that was the end of it. They didn't even do anything in peculiar; they just kept doing things together and had fun while doing it.

"Just being together is good enough?" Jaune came to his own conclusion. "Is that what you're telling me?"

"As simple as the advice sounds, yes." Ren agreed. "Even the most boring activities can be made fun when you're with someone else and in this case, if Penny is just trying to learn more about normal life, I think you shouldn't overdo it. If there aren't any bad signs, then keep pushing forward."

While it wasn't exactly specific advice detailing a specific type of activity, there was no denying that it was sound advice all the same, not to mention kind of obvious now that the blonde boy thought about it. That was more or less what he had been doing prior to this conversation and it had worked out. Now he was simply finding the confirmation that he needed to ensure that he wasn't wrong.

_So I can do something without messing up._ Jaune felt himself grow a little lighter. _Thank the gods._

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

Penny had some new memories to process.

They were important for her to properly understand because for one thing, they were completely new to her in the sense that never before had she felt such a strong connection to any memories whatsoever. Even taking into account her limited operational lifespan, the magnitude of intensity for which she felt for them was intense.

But with no reference point to help her build a foundation in which to begin comprehending what she was feeling, it was hard to say whether not the current pillars that supported her in-progress thinking had any basis in fact or substantial evidence. In short, she was merely going off of purely her "gut instinct" as living people seemed so fond of saying. She had no other way to describe the method she was working with.

Penny's train of thought went something like this; Jaune was her friend, that much he had said many times over. His actions proved as much, so she had every reason to believe him with all of her being. He chose to spend time with her in spite of the busy schedule that he no doubt kept. He took her to experience new things that she never would have discovered by herself or with the assistance of the people in her life that she did know. He made every effort to ensure that each unique activity they did together was as fun as possible. In simple terms, he was doing everything that a good friend would do, at least according to what she understood about friendship.

The main point of contention was that as much as the synthetic girl did enjoy whenever they were together doing something, what she felt didn't feel consistent with what defined friendship. If she were to describe what she felt about the time spent with the blonde boy, it would be apt to define all of their experiences in a single word: rapturous. That wasn't just a way to characterize past experiences. It was also the word that could express what she felt for things that were to come. She had a feeling that no matter might happen down the line, she could always count on her time with Jaune being nothing but worthwhile,

But none of this helped Penny understand why she felt so strongly for the brief but meaningful past they shared and the future that she anticipated, almost expected. It seemed almost unnatural what she felt in her circuits. Not even her father, the closest person she had to family, made her feel such heightened emotions. With her confusion came with it multiple questions for her to ponder on?

What was she feeling?

Why was she feeling these things?

Were these feelings natural for her situation?

Did other people experience these feelings?

If others felt the same thing she did, could others feel similar intensities?

What was the best way to address these feelings?

Did Jaune feel the same way she did?

If he did, what did that mean?

As she found herself wandering down the relatively busy streets of Vale, the orange-haired girl took care to watch where she was going, but then she found out that her half-hearted dedication to being mindful of her path wasn't good enough to stop her once again from colliding with another person. It was only thanks to her quick thinking that she avoided falling flat on her back. The person who collided with her wasn't so lucky.

"Salutations!" Penny automatically went into a friendly greeting.

"What?" The girl with the white dress, who was currently on the ground, didn't appear to be nearly as enthusiastic.

"Salutations!" Penny merely repeated what she had said.

"I heard you the first time!" The fashionably-dressed girl with pale blue eyes got up and was suddenly in her face. "You should mind where you walk!"

"Weiss, I think you're a little too worked up about this." A second voice, this time coming from a blonde girl. "C'mon, it was an accident."

"Perhaps you would care to fall over instead, Xiao Long?" The girl called Weiss rounded on her apparent companion. "Because I can arrange for that."

"Okay, okay, you've made your point. Sheesh." The tall blonde raised her hands to signal the gesture of surrender, then quietly muttered to herself. "Bitch."

The synthetic was fairly sure that it was rude to address another female as that term, but then again, it wasn't any of her business what other people said or did. Besides, she had to keep herself relatively unknown for the time being.

"I apologize for making you fall over!" Penny simply leaned in to the girl she made fall over. "My name is Penny Polendina. What's yours?"

"You… don't know who I am?" The girl with the scar across her eye appeared flabbergasted. "Impossible."

"Weiss." Now a girl with black hair ending in red tips chimed in. "Just introduce yourself. She apologized and gave her name. You should too."

"Fine then." The girl identified as Weiss puffed out her chest and adjusted her body to appear more imposing than she actually was. "I am Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Remember that."

"I know you are!" Penny nodded her head. "I'm from Atlas!"

Weiss's left eye twitched. "Then why did you ask for my name?!"

Penny tilted her head in confusion. "Is it not proper manners to give your name when you first meet someone in person, regardless of whether or not you know of their name?"

"She's got a point." Another one, this one with golden eyes. "I guess that means we should all introduce ourselves."

"I'm Ruby Rose!" The shortest of the four girls waved wildly. "I like cookies!"

"I see." Penny noted her name, her face, and a few other details.

"The name's Yang Xiao Long." The tall and busty blonde went next. "Nice to meet you."

"A pleasure." Penny smiled in greeting.

"Blake Belladonna." The girl with pure black hair rounded out the group.

"Greetings." Penny said this while noting the faunus cat ears concealed with the bow on top of her head. "My name is Penny Polendina! It's nice to meet you all!"

"You already told us your name." Weiss crossed her arms.

"So I did." Penny responded simply.

A thought occurred to the synthetic. Jaune had mentioned that he had a friend that was much like herself. He was likely referring to a fellow student at Beacon Academy and these girls were students at Beacon Academy by the looks of them. They were strong, that much she could see from a glance.

"Is there… something on my face?" Weiss took a step back when the girl with green eyes leaned forward.

"Nothing at all." Penny replied, her smile changing into a look of contemplation. "You are all students of Beacon Academy, correct?"

"Yeah!" Yang looked surprised. "How'd you guess that."

"You are strong, far stronger than the average civilian." Penny made her observations known. "Additionally, all of you have your auras unlocked."

"Wow, you can tell that much just by looking at us?" Blake crossed her arms. "Can you sense other aura users?"

"Yes!" Penny nodded an affirmative. "Very easily. I too have training. I'm from Atlas Academy! I am here to participate in the upcoming Vytal Festival!"

"You? Fight?" Weiss looked her up and down. "Pardon me, but you hardly strike me as a fighter of any kind."

"Jaune said the same thing." Penny commented on that. "I suppose that means that I really do look defenseless."

"Wait, Jaune?" Ruby rushed over. "As in, Jaune Arc?"

"Yes." Penny said.

"Tall, blonde hair, blue eyes?" Ruby listed off his features. "Weak at fighting?"

"Yes to all of those things!" Penny once again agreed. "But I'm offering to train him so that he can become stronger!"

"Hmph." Weiss appeared somewhat disinterested. "So that dunce actually has the ability to comprehend his incompetence. It's about time."

"Uh, Ice Queen, you do know that he's also training with Pyrrha?" Yang chimed in. "Like, you can hear them every night pretty much."

"I couldn't care less." Weiss dismissed her teammate, then regarded the orange-haired girl. "If that deviant ever does anything to you, I assume you know what to do."

"Why would Jaune do anything to me?" Penny was genuinely confused by this. "He's done nothing but help me. In fact, he and I are friends!"

"Friends? With a girl? Jaune?" Blake raised an eyebrow. "That's hard to believe."

"Um, again, Pyrrha." Yang raised her hand. "Does anyone not notice that."

"You say something?" Blake regarded the blonde.

"Seriously?" Yang palmed her face. "Does anyone other than me pay attention to the social scene at the academy?"

"In any case, the idea that the blonde fool can do anything with girls other than make woefully lacking attempts at courtship is laughable." Weiss shook her head. "Pyrrha aside, that is."

"You guys." Yang whined.

"Do you not like Jaune?" Penny couldn't understand such a sentiment.

"Of course not!" Weiss shouted. "He makes constant attempts at wooing me?"

"Oh." Penny had no other words.

She frowned.

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

Since Jaune took his duty of teaching Penny about normal life seriously, he made an effort to watch Penny during critical moments of their outings. He did ask her about her mood and how she felt about certain activities, but in order to make sure that he was getting enough details about his progress in familiarizing his friend with everyday life, he observed her for other small details.

One thing that he did note about the girl was how she walked with a sort of strange stiffness that was both awkward and in-character. The first part wasn't hard to understand; she was sheltered and she was trying to learn. The latter part was particularly confusing seeing as he didn't know any girls that could say that being somewhat mechanical was part of their personality, yet it suited her in a weird way.

The leader of Team JNPR also observed that her eyes, whenever they landed on something new and unfamiliar, the gingerhead would focus with a moment of high-intensity, something that he had never seen a girl do, or anyone for that matter. It was almost like she was piercing into the innards of whatever or whoever she set her sights on. It made for an amusing sight at times, but more than once, she had to remind her not to stare at people for too long because then she would be perceived as weird in a bad way.

Jaune could also list off a few other oddball quirks that were part of Penny's repertoire, but none of them were nearly as prominent as the two that he observed most often. Thus, he didn't give those ones much thought, just understood that they existed and moved on. The most important thing was that in spite of her numerous unusual features, as far as he could tell, none of them could be categorized in a negative way, at least not to the extent that she used them. It was actually kind of amazing that she could retain such innocence and naivety, which contrasted greatly with her competence as a fighter.

Speaking of fighting, he continued to do combat training with her at least once a week, supplementing his training regiment alongside Pyrrha's training. The bow-wearing girl knew quite a bit about close quarters combat, which made sense considering that her training came from Atlas Academy. She was now having him master basic maneuvers, something that he took seriously. He wanted to have more options when engaged in a fight. Ideally, if he could achieve the amount of skill that Yang had in unarmed combat, that would be great. One day at a time, he had to tell himself so as not to get too impatient.

But now wasn't the time to be thinking about huntsman-related business. He was here because Penny had called him and wanted to spend some time with him. His time with her would be relatively short in comparison to their other days together, but he agreed nonetheless.

And that's when he noticed that today, she was acting much different than usual.

"Hey, you okay?" Jaune asked her while gently placing a hand on her shoulder. "You look lost in thought."

They stopped walking and her eyes gazed at the hand reassuring her.

"I'm thinking about… you." Penny looked embarrassed to say that. "I was wondering… Jaune, do you… have anyone that you like romantically?"

"Romantically?" Jaune didn't answer immediately. "Um, where is this coming from?"

A few seconds of silence followed. He let his hand fall to his side and waited for her explanation. She appeared very reluctant to explain herself. Her posture was even more stiff than it usually was. Her eyes appeared to be moving everywhere and looking at everything but his face. It was like she couldn't decide on something.

"A few days ago, I met some girls from Beacon Academy." Penny quietly said. "Are you familiar with Team RWBY?"

"Familiar?" Jaune raised an eyebrow. "They're like the sister team to Team JNPR. They're all awesome. So you met them?"

"Y-yes." Penny still couldn't look him in the eye. "I did, by accident. I bumped into Weiss Schee."

"Ah, the Snow Angel." Jaune laughed. "Let me guess, she chewed you out, threw a temper tantrum for a bit."

"For a moment." Penny said. "Yes."

"That's just like her." Jaune chuckled, although he could still feel her nervousness. "But how is that supposed to be bad?"

"Um, w-well…" Penny finally looked him in the eye, albeit with a lot of effort. "Do you like her? Weiss, I mean?"

"Like her?" Jaune didn't need to give that much thought. "If we're talking romantically, then yes. I'm definitely interested."

"I… understand." Penny uttered.

He picked up immediately on her tone. After hearing her talk in nothing but happy or occasional confused tones, such a tone of defeat was completely alien and unique. He couldn't help but notice it. Even if her shift was subtle, even if she wasn't sobbing her eyes out or making a scene like those scenes in soap operas, the fact that she was even capable of being sad was all that he could see.

"Penny?" Jaune cautiously spoke.

"I'm happy for you." Penny was now smiling again. "As your friend, I hope that it works out."

That was way too sudden for him to process, but he knew that he didn't mistake the expression and mood that she had been displaying mere seconds ago. Still, as he looked at her in this moment, not a trace of that could be seen.

Should he push the topic?

But what if he made her sad again?

What would a good friend do?

"Jaune?" Penny moved closer to him.

His blue eyes noticed how her green eyes seemed to beg him for an answer. For a second, he contrasted her happy face with her sad face. With the experience still fresh in his mind, he could clearly see the differences between them.

And one thing became clear to him: he didn't like the idea of her not smiling. That was kind of stupid not to mention foolish, but he liked to be idealistic. She wanted him to be her friend, so he should do his best to keep her spirits up.

"Thanks." Jaune threw his willpower into appearing pleasant, even if he felt a slight tug at his heart. "I'll do my best to get her to like me back."

"Splendid!" Penny cheered. "Now what should we do today?"

[ "I don't know." Jaune shrugged. "Did we plan anything?"

"No." Penny shook her head. "I simply asked you to spend time with me."

"Right, we didn't make a plan." Jaune recalled her brief scroll call. "Well, I guess we'll just have to make something up as we go."

"You." Penny spoke.

"What?" Jaune didn't know what she meant.

"You decide for both of us." Penny elaborated on her meaning. "Whatever you choose, I will follow you."

"Are… you sure?" Jaune regarded her. "I've got no problem with doing something we both agree on. It doesn't have to be-"

"You decide!" Penny was more forceful this time. "Please."

His instinct told her that she was doing this to appease him somehow. That didn't sit well with him no matter how he sliced it, yet simultaneously he could also detect that should he go against her wishes, this outing might turn awkward beyond what was salvageable. He had no proof of this happening, but was he willing to chance it?

Apparently not.

"Okay." Jaune relented to her command. "I'll find something for us to do."

Maybe today wasn't the right day for an in-depth conversation. Maybe their last time out had fundamentally changed their relationship. Maybe something in their lives changed in a way that affected their relationship. None of these theories made any sense, but the team leader felt his mind formulating all of these concepts simply to fill his mind with something. If it helped him to stop focusing on the lack of conversation.

That, and he quickly surfed the web for something that could help him find an activity to do without the need for heavy amounts of verbal communication. He expanded his search parameters in the interest of shortening the time he needed to find something.

There was also the fact that plenty of people were making comments about the two of them.

"Just kiss and make up."

"They're so into each other."

"Get a room."

"Too much slowburn. Just get on with it."

Seriously, who did that? Who commented on a relationship that wasn't any of their business? Wasn't there a rule in the public conduct book that talked about never doing that? Was it too much to ask for that people not speculate?

This was not a date.

This was not awkward.

This was just… something.

* * *

**RWBY - - - RWBY**

* * *

**November 21st,**

**80 Years After the Great War**

Penny honestly wished that she could just melt into the floor. That was the feeling that she had the moment that she returned.

This most recent time spent with Jaune was both wonderful, yet overwhelmingly embarrassing at the same time. The worst part was that she couldn't reasonably explain why she felt this way. Well, she could to an extent, but she couldn't explain why the reason made her want to crawl into a hole and die.

When Weiss had made it known that Jaune was interested in her in a romantic sense, that should have been the end of it. Penny knew that her blonde friend had his own life to attend to, including his hopes, dreams, and desires. All individuals had these things and it would be disrespectful not to mention arrogant to think that he only thought about her.

Yet when he confirmed his interest in Weiss as more than just friends, it gave her a feeling that she couldn't accurately depict. She just knew that she didn't like the feeling. This was a problem because if someone were to look into her programming and discover this emotion, it could be perceived as a flaw or an indication of her A.I. being somehow imperfect. She was made to always be cheerful and bright, which signalled an ideal state of consciousness.

Even getting past the explanation of this feeling that clearly wasn't of a positive manner, how was she to truly come to a complete and clear perception?

Penny backed up her processors. Her path of understanding was being muddled and she needed to streamline it if she was to solve this problem.

Why was she feeling this?

Well, she liked Jaune as a friend, that much she knew for sure. Because they were friends, they spent time together, time that she considered precious and valuable. Whenever they were together, she would make sure that her memories preserved it all in perfect detail. She wanted to have something to remind her that she once lived somewhat normally before her time came to commit fully to her duties.

Why did she feel bad things at the idea of Jaune romantically pursuing Weiss?

Well, from what her information told her about romantic partners, such a union was considered more sacred and important than friendship. It led to dating, engagement, and ultimately marriage. All sources pointed towards this being the single most important relationship in a person's life. That meant a great deal of time had to be spent with a significant other, which meant less time for friends.

That meant that should Jaune and Weiss become involved, that meant she would lose her friend.

That was simply… inconceivable.

Impossible.

Unacceptable.

Penny searched for a reason not to fear. Maybe such a thing wouldn't happen. She didn't need to worry now. After all, it appeared that Jaune's interest in Weiss was strictly a one-sided affair. The heiress to the SDC had made the claim that she didn't reciprocate what he felt, or at least she hinted as much.

But was that reasoning enough to quell her fear?

* * *

**THIS IS A GENERAL REMINDER TO ALL OF MY READERS. I WILL BE LEAVING FOR BASIC COMBAT TRAINING ON AUGUST 4TH. JULY, THIS MONTH, WILL BE THE LAST MONTH THAT I POST CHAPTERS FOR ANY OF MY STORIES. UPDATES WILL RESUME IF AND WHEN I AM ABLE. UNTIL THAT DAY COMES, EXPECT NO FURTHER UPDATES FROM THIS STORY.**

**ALSO, WHILE I'M GONE, I'LL PROBABLY DEVELOP SOME NEW IDEAS ABOUT STORIES, NEW AND EXISTING. I'VE GOT SOME IDEAS CURRENTLY ON MY PROFILE PAGE. IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN ANY OF THEM, MAKE THAT INTEREST KNOWN BY VOTING ON THE POLE WHICH IS ALSO ON MY PROFILE PAGE.**

**Now to author notes.**

**I don't intend for this awkward phase to last that long or be all that intense. Like I said, this story is about the feels, the good kind. That said, I do have to address the fact of Penny being inexperienced in the ways of understanding nuances of relationships overall. There's also Jaune's (awkward and cringy) feelings for Weiss. He's got to overcome that in order for any progress to occur.**

**Thoughts? Reviews and feedback are greatly appreciated.**

**Thanks for reading and I hope to see you all on the flip side real soon.**

**-Ktyou**


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